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642 

mo 

FOUNTAINS 
OF  PAPAL  ROME 

BY 
MRS.  CHARLES  MAC  VEAGH 


ILLUSTRATIONS  DRAWN 

AND   ENGRAVED   ON   WOOD  BY 

RUDOLPH  RUZICKA 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1915 


saaoaftasaiui 


COPTUGHT,  1015.    BT 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published  October,  1015 


^uf^^.:^^ 


An 


TO    THE    MEMORY    OP 
A    FATHER    AND    DAUGHTER 


130S898 


CONTENTS 

St.  Peter's 1 

ScossA  Cavalli 19 

Piazza  Pia 33 

Campidoglio 41 

Farnese 61 

Villa  Giulia 81 

colotstna 105 

quattro  fontane 117 

Tartarughe 133 

fontana  del  mose 143 

The  Lateran 153 

Trinita  de'  Monti 167 

Villa  Borghese,  now  Villa  Umberto  Primo  179 

La  Barcaccia 195 

Triton 205 

Navona 213 

[    vii    ] 


CONTENTS 

Trevi 227 

Piazza  del  Popolo 239 

PiNCIAN 257 

FoNTANA  Paola 267 

Monte  Cavallo 285 

Appendix 303 

Chronological  Index  of  Aqueducts  Men- 
tioned, Ancient  and  Modern     .     .     .  307 

Chronological  Index  of  Popes  Mentioned  308 

Alphabetical  Index  of  Architects,  Sculp- 
tors, Painters,  and  Engravers  Men- 
tioned    310 


[    viii    ] 


LIST  OF  FULI^PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

View  of  Fountains  and  Obelisk  of  St.  Peter's  from 

beneath  Bernini's  Colonnade 9 

Upper  Basin  of  the  Fountain  in  the  Piazza  Scossa 

Cavalli 25 

View  of  the  Piazza  del  Campidoglio  from  the  Left  Side 

of  the  Cordonata 47 

One  of  the  Fountains  in  the  Piazza  Farnese      .     .     .  71 

Fountain  of  the  Virgins 91 

Fountain  of  the  Tartarughe 137 

The  Fountain  of  the  Sea-Horses 183 

The  Fountain  of  the  Amorini 191 

The  Fountain  of  the  Triton 209 

The  Fountain  of  the  Four  Rivers 217 

Figure  of  "Neptune"  in  the  Fountain  of  Trevi     .     .  233 

Piazza  del  Popolo  from  the  West 247 

Mostraof  the  "Fontanone" 279 

The  Fountain  of  Monte  Cavallo 291 


INTRODUCTION 


ERRATA 
Page  170,  line  18,  for  London  read  Westminster. 
Page  221,  line  25,  for  Leo  X  read  Innocent  X. 
Page  232,  line  22,  for  Tre-vii  read  Trevie. 


Moors,  have  so  appreciated  tne  value  and  tne  Deauty 
of  abundant  water. 

There  are  few  squares,  even  in  the  Rome  of  to-day, 
where,  at  least  in  the  silence  of  the  night,  the  sound  of 
splashing  water  may  not  be  heard.  The  tiny  fountain, 
often  fern-fringed,  with  its  ceaseless,  slender  stream  of 
water,  is  the  one  priceless  possession  in  hundreds  of  old 
courtyards,  where  it  fiUs  a  damp  and  lonely  silence 
with  charm,  or  redeems  by  its  indestructible  quahty  of 

[    xi    ] 


INTRODUCTION 

Rome  has  been  called  the  most  rehgious  city  in  the 
world  because  of  the  number  of  her  churches.  With 
equal  propriety,  and  perhaps  with  greater  justice,  she 
might  be  called  the  cleanest  city  in  the  world  because 
of  the  number  of  her  fountains.  Pagan  emperors  and 
Christian  popes  alike  have  found  both  profit  and 
pleasure  in  adding  another  fountain  or  in  making  or 
repairing  one  more  aqueduct  to  give  a  still  greater 
supply  of  water  to  the  Roman  populace.  No  other 
people,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  Spanish 
Moors,  have  so  appreciated  the  value  and  the  beauty 
of  abundant  water. 

There  are  few  squares,  even  in  the  Rome  of  to-day, 
where,  at  least  in  the  silence  of  the  night,  the  sound  of 
splashing  water  may  not  be  heard.  The  tiny  fountain, 
often  fern-fringed,  with  its  ceaseless,  slender  stream  of 
water,  is  the  one  priceless  possession  in  hundreds  of  old 
courtyards,  where  it  fills  a  damp  and  lonely  silence 
with  charm,  or  redeems  by  its  indestructible  quahty  of 

[    xi    ] 


INTRODUCTION 

beauty  the  meanness  of  the  squalid  life  about  it.  It  is 
impossible  to  think  of  Rome  without  her  fountains. 
Yet,  after  a  few  weeks,  the  eye  is  hardly  aware  of  their 
presence.  It  is  as  if  by  their  very  beauty  and  omni- 
presence they  had  acquired  the  divine  attributes  of  sun- 
light; and  it  requires  the  silence,  as  with  the  sunlight  it 
requires  the  cloud,  to  rouse  our  consciousness  to  their 
existence.  They  take  their  place  among  the  elemental 
causes  of  happiness,  since  the  pain  we  feel  at  their  loss  is 
the  only  adequate  measure  of  the  pleasure  they  give  us. 
It  is  difficult  for  the  man  of  to-day  to  picture  to  him- 
self the  abundance  and  splendor  of  the  fountains  in 
imperial  Rome.  Some  idea  of  their  character  may  be 
obtained  from  the  description  gathered  from  various 
sources  of  Nero's  fountain  on  the  Csehan.  The  mingled 
waters  of  the  Claudian  and  the  Anio  Novus  aque- 
ducts were  brought  thither  over  the  Neronian  arches. 
A  wall  fifty  feet  in  height,  faced  with  rare  marbles  and 
decorated  by  hemicycles  and  statues,  formed  the  back- 
groimd  of  the  first  cascade.  At  the  foot  of  this  wall  a 
huge  basin  received  the  stream,  which  then  fell  into 
another  basin  ten  feet  below  the  first,  and  thence  flowed 
into  the  great  artificial  lake,  described  by  Suetonius  as 
like  unto  a  sea,  which  filled  all  that  space  now  occupied 
by  the  CoHseum.  Of  great  magnificence  also  was  the 
fountain  of  Severus  Alexander  on  the  EsquiUne  which 
served  to  introduce  the  Acqua  Alexandrina,  the  elev- 
enth and  last  water-supply   of  imperial   Rome.    A 

[    xii    1 


INTRODUCTION 

coin  of  the  period  gives  a  representation  of  this  foun- 
tain, and  in  it  can  be  traced  a  certain  resemblance  to 
the  Fontana  Paola  which  stands  at  the  present  day  on 
the  Janiculum,  and  which  in  its  size  and  quantity  of 
water  reproduces  faintly  the  fountains  of  the  past. 

That  fine  phrase,  "la  nostalgic  de  la  civilisation," 
nowhere  finds  a  more  perfect  illustration  than  in  the 
attitude  of  the  Western  world  toward  Rome.  Some 
homing  instinct  of  the  human  heart  has  for  centuries 
carried  thither  men  of  every  nation  and  of  every  sort  of 
beUef  or  unbelief;  and  the  conviction  that  it  will  bring 
them  thither  in  the  future  as  in  the  past  is  impHed  in 
that  other  name  by  which  we  know  her.  She  is  the 
Eternal  City.  Every  one  can  feel  but  no  one  can  explain 
the  charm  which  she  has  over  the  spirits  of  men.  Here 
the  psychic  forces  of  the  world's  great  past  are  stored 
in  imperishable  memories.  Here  each  individual  finds 
spiritual  influences  which  seem  to  have  been  waiting 
through  the  ages  for  his  own  peculiar  appropriation. 
King  Theodoric,  in  the  sixth  century,  spoke  not  only 
for  himself  but  for  all  succeeding  generations  of  North- 
men when  he  said  that  Rome  was  indifferent  to  none 
because  foreign  to  none.  It  seems  as  if  the  feehng 
for  Rome  were  an  instinct  congenital  with  our  appe- 
tites and  our  passions.  It  requires  no  justification  and 
it  admits  of  no  substitute.  It  is  dateless  and  univer- 
sal. The  Gothic  king  of  the  past  finds  a  spiritual  brother 
in  the  schoolboy  of  to-day  who  caught  his  mother's  arm 

{    xiii    ] 


INTRODUCTION 

on  the  Terrace  at  Frascati  to  say,  with  an  uncontrol- 
lable tremor  in  his  voice:  "See  there;  that  Uttle  spot 
over  there  I  That  is  Rome,  and  she  was  once  the  whole 
world!"  King  and  schoolboy  might  have  met  famil- 
iarly in  some  sunny  portico  of  the  classic  city.  Both 
were  members  of  the  great  freemasonry  of  the  lovers  of 
Rome,  which  stretches  its  network  far  and  wide  over 
our  civilization. 

In  this  company  there  are  not  a  few  who  find  them- 
selves in  Rome,  yet  not  able  to  see  Rome — to  see  it, 
that  is,  as  the  historians,  artists,  archaeologists,  and 
their  own  minds  call  upon  them  to  see  it.  Their  right 
to  tread  the  Roman  streets  depends  upon  their  obe- 
dience to  some  law  compelling  an  existence  lived  en- 
tirely in  the  open  air  and  in  the  broad  sunshine.  To 
such  the  gates  of  Paradise  seem  closed.  To  be  forbidden 
the  galleries  and  churches  and  catacombs  and  the  hid- 
den recesses  of  the  old  ruins  appears  an  intolerable  fate. 
Yet  even  to  these,  who  have  made  the  great  acceptance 
and  are  Uving  upon  the  half-loaf  of  life — even  to  these, 
Rome  is  kind.  Little  by  little,  in  easy  periods,  they 
can  get  back  into  the  days  of  the  Renaissance,  of  the 
Counter-Reformation,  of  the  Napoleonic  Era,  and  of 
the  great  Risorgimento.  This  can  be  done  under  the 
conditions  of  open  air  and  sunshine;  for  it  is  in  such 
surroundings  that  we  find  the  fountains,  and  the  foun- 
tains of  Rome  are  in  themselves  title-pages  to  Roman 
history. 

[    xiv    ) 


ST.  PETER'S 


ST.  PETER'S 

"Fountains  are  among  the  most  successful  monu- 
ments of  the  late  Renaissance,"  and  those  which  stand 
on  either  side  of  the  great  Square  of  St.  Peter's  show 
that  Symonds's  statement  should  be  enlarged  so  as  to 
include  the  century  which  foUowed  that  period.  Mr. 
John  Evelyn,  the  accompUshed  Enghsh  traveller  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  saw  the  fountain  of  Paul  V  soon 
after  its  completion  and  describes  it  in  his  diary  as  the 
"goodUest  I  ever  saw."  Since  his  day  the  twin  foun- 
tains both  of  Trafalgar  Square  and  of  the  Place  de  la 
Concorde  have  been  erected,  but  Evelyn  could  still 
give  the  superlative  praise  to  the  great  Roman  model. 
Although  the  two  foimtains  in  the  Square  of  St.  Peter's 

[    3    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

are  exactly  alike  they  are  not  of  precisely  the  same 
date.  The  conception  of  the  design  belongs  to  Carlo 
Mademo,  who  executed  the  fountain  on  the  right  of 
the  approach  to  the  basihca  for  Pope  Paul  V  (Borghese, 
i6o5-i62i),  while  the  fountain  to  the  left  was  copied 
from  this  for  Pope  Clement  X  (Altieri,  1670-1676), 
some  sixty  years  later.  Clement's  courtiers  had  ob- 
served that  whenever  His  HoKness  walked  in  the  di- 
rection of  Paul  V's  great  fountain  his  eyes  continually 
turned  toward  it.  At  length  Clement  ordered  his  archi- 
tect, Carlo  Fontana,  nephew  of  Carlo  Maderno,  to 
make  an  exact  copy  of  Maderno's  work  and  to  erect 
it  on  the  south  side  of  the  obeUsk.  The  double  fountain 
not  only  enhances  the  magnificence  of  the  entire  scene, 
but  so  changes  it  by  introducing  the  additional  element 
of  balance  that  Clement  X's  order  for  the  second  foun- 
tain was  in  reahty  an  order  for  a  new  composition.  The 
coat  of  arms  cut  upon  the  octagonal  support  of  the 
upper  basins  and  half  hidden  and  obhterated  by  the 
falling  water  is,  on  the  right-hand  fountain,  that  of  the 
Borghese  family  (the  crowned  eagle  above  the  dragon) ; 
and  on  the  left-hand  fountain,  that  of  the  Altieri  fam- 
ily, an  inverted  pyramid  of  six  stars.  The  latter  foun- 
tain looks  as  if  it  were  the  older,  for,  as  it  is  situated  in 
the  southeast  comer  of  the  wide  piazza,  it  is  exposed  to 
the  full  sweep  of  the  Tramontana,  or  north  wind,  which 
has  fretted  and  worn  in  no  small  degree  the  surface  of 
the  travertine.  It  may  have  been  the  more  sheltered 
position  of  the  northeast  corner  which  determined  the 
location  of  Paul  V's  fountain,  the  earlier  of  the  two. 

[   4   ] 


ST.    PETER'S 

In  the  spring  the  Altieri  fountam  is  the  more  beautiful 
because  at  that  time  that  portion  of  the  Colonnade 
which  forms  its  background  reveals  vistas  of  foUage, 
while  the  moss  web  woven  about  the  crown  of  the  shaft 
is  of  a  more  brilliant  green  and  the  lower  basin  is  full  of 
the  same  aquatic  growth  swaying  with  the  motion  of 
the  water. 

The  Acqua  Paola,  which  feeds  these  fountains,  comes, 
in  the  last  instance,  from  the  summit  of  the  Janiculum, 
and  therefore  their  central  jets  are  flung  upward  to  a 
height  of  sixty-four  feet,  far  above  the  balustrade 
crowning  Bernini's  lofty  colonnades,  which  form  the 
background  of  the  piazza.  This  height  exceeds  by 
from  twenty-four  to  thirty-four  feet  the  height  of 
the  Enghsh  and  French  fountains;  and  whereas  in 
the  foimtains  of  London  and  Paris  the  supply  and 
force  of  the  water  varies  with  the  season  of  the  year 
and  the  time  of  day  (the  Trafalgar  Square  fountains 
in  summer  play  thirteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four  and  in  winter  only  seven),  the  abundance  and 
power  of  the  water  in  these  great  Roman  fountains 
is  unfailing  and  unchanging.  At  midnight,  at  high 
noon,  in  summer,  in  winter,  they  are  always  flowing, 
and  the  splash  and  wash  of  the  water  makes  them  akin 
to  the  cascades  of  Nature. 

This  perpetual  flow  has  been  a  characteristic  of  the 
Roman  fountains  since  the  days  of  the  Emperors. 
Frontinus,  writing  in  the  reign  of  Trajan,  says  that  all 
the  great  fountains  were  constructed  with  two  receiv- 
ing-tanks, each  from  a  separate  aqueduct,  so  that  no 

[    5    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

accident  or  emergency  should  diminish  or  stop  the 
supply  of  water.  The  later  popes  were  also  careful  to 
preserve  this  uninterrupted  flow,  and  since  the  close  of 
the  Cinque  Cento  their  fountains  have  played  unceas- 
ingly. The  lowest  basins  of  both  fountains  (twenty-six 
feet  in  diameter)  are  of  travertine  with  a  rim  of  Carrara 
marble.  The  middle  basins  (fifteen  feet  in  diameter)  are 
of  granite.  That  in  the  right-hand  fountain  is  of  red 
Oriental  granite,  and  that  in  the  left-hand  fountain  of 
gray  granite.  The  inverted  basins  at  the  summit,  on 
which  the  water  falls,  are  of  travertine,  as  are  also  the 
massive  shafts,  which,  however,  Maderno  adorned 
with  a  shght  moulding  of  Carrara  marble  just  above 
the  water-line  in  the  lowest  basins.  The  entire  struc- 
tures have  been  so  transformed  in  color  by  three  hun- 
dred years'  deposit  of  the  Acqua  Paola  that  they  have 
the  appearance  of  bronze.  The  water  in  each  fountain 
rises  in  a  crowded  mass  of  separate  jets  from  the  sum- 
mit of  the  central  and  single  shaft,  and  falls  at  first  on 
an  inverted  basin  covered  by  deep  carving,  the  richness 
of  which  gains  in  beauty  from  the  green  web  woven 
about  its  curves  and  angles  by  the  fall  of  the  water. 
This  upper  carving  seems  to  be  a  part  of  the  fantastic 
action  of  the  wind-tossed  spray.  The  lower  basins  which 
receive  the  water  are  severely  plain,  the  design  follow- 
ing Nature's  scheme  of  development,  from  a  fretted 
and  turbulent  source  to  the  broad  surfaces  of  the  full 
stream.  But  the  architectural  values  of  these  fountains 
are  incalculably  affected  by  the  wonderful  play  of  the 
water.  It  leaps  upward  as  if  to  meet  the  sun;  it  falls 

[    6    ] 


ST.    PETER'S 

back  in  tumult  and  foam;  it  drenches  all  about  with 
its  far-flung  spray  and  wasteful  overflow.  It  is  the  very 
triumph  of  vitality  and  joy. 

The  fountains  of  St.  Peter's  might  be  said  to  bear  to- 
ward the  vast  pigizza  of  which  they  are  a  part  the  same 
relation  as  that  of  the  eye  to  the  human  countenance: 
without  them  the  noble  spaces  would  seem  cold  and  in- 
animate. This  gleaming,  tossing  water  endlessly  at  play 
with  the  wind  and  the  sun,  instinct  with  a  power  and  a 
beauty  not  of  man's  making — this  it  is  which  gives  to 
the  world-famous  scene  the  touch  of  life. 

Pope  Paul  V  has  not  only  the  honor  of  having  erected 
the  first  of  these  two  modern  fountains,  but  he  has  also 
that  of  having  himself  discovered  the  original  manu- 
script of  a  poem  in  which  mention  is  made  of  the  first 
fountain  connected  with  the  Church  of  St.  Peter.  This 
poem  dates  from  the  fourth  century  and  was  written  by 
Pope  Damasus  (366-384).  This  pontiff  was,  like  the 
Emperor  Hadrian,  a  Spaniard;  and,  like  Hadrian,  he 
was  not  only  a  ruler  of  men,  but  gifted  with  many  and 
varied  talents.  He  was  an  archaeologist,  a  civil  engineer, 
theologian,  and  poet.  He  presided  over  that  Ecumen- 
ical Council  by  which  the  second  great  heresy  threat- 
ening the  church  was  condemned,  as  the  first  had  been 
at  the  Councfl  of  Nicaea. 

St.  Jerome,  after  years  of  friendship,  became  secre- 
tary to  the  then  care-worn  and  aihng  pontiff,  among 
whose  many  labors  had  been  the  restoration  of  the 
Catacomb  of  St.  Calixtus,  and  other  tombs  of  the  early 
Christians  and  martyrs,  some  of  which  he  marked  with 

I    7    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

metrical  inscriptions  of  his  own  composition.  It  must 
have  been  while  engaged  upon  this  pious  work  of  re- 
construction in  the  Vatican  Hill  that  he  came  upon 
those  springs  that,  for  lack  of  a  proper  channel,  had 
damaged  the  tombs  upon  the  hillside  and  were  threat- 
ening to  undermine  his  great  basihca  (the  first  Church 
of  St.  Peter)  within  less  than  fifty  years  of  its  erection 
by  Constantine.  He  drained  the  ground  in  the  vicinity, 
building  a  small  aqueduct,  "neatly  in  the  old  Roman 
style  of  masonry,"  to  lead  these  unshepherded  waters 
to  definite  locaHties  where  they  could  be  a  benefit  and 
not  a  danger  to  their  surroundings.  The  water  thus  col- 
lected is  called  the  Acqua  Damasiana,  and  to  this  day 
the  private  apartments  of  the  Pope  are  supplied  from 
this  source.  The  feeding  springs  of  this  water  are  lo- 
cated at  Sant'  Antonio,  to  the  west  of  the  church,  and 
the  aqueduct  of  Pope  Damasus  lies  at  a  depth  of 
ninety-eight  feet.  Pope  Damasus  himself  describes  this 
in  the  poem  which  was  discovered  in  1607,  more  than 
twelve  hundred  years  later,  by  Pope  Paul  V. 

Pope  Damasus  says:  "The  Hill"  (Vatican  Hill) 
"was  abundant  in  springs,  and  the  water  found 
its  way  to  the  very  graves  of  the  saints.  Pope 
Damasus  determined  to  check  the  evil.  He  caused 
a  large  portion  of  the  Vatican  Hill  to  be  cut  away, 
and  by  excavating  channels  and  boring  cuniculi  he 
drained  the  springs  so  as  to  make  the  basilica  dry 
and  also  to  provide  it  with  a  steady  fountain  of 
excellent  water."  Of  this  steady  fountain  there  is 
no  description,  and  therefore  the  fountain  of  Pope 

[    8    ] 


View  of  fountains  and  obelisk  of  St.  Peter's  from  beneath 
Bernini's  Colonnade. 


ST.    PETER'S 

Symmachus  (498-61 4)  becomes  the  first  fountain  re- 
corded in  the  history  of  St.  Peter's. 

Pope  Symmachus  was  a  Corsican.  He  evidently  had 
a  passion  for  building  every  kind  of  structure  connected 
with  water  as  a  cleanser  and  as  a  beautifier  of  man's 
civic  hfe.  His  fountain,  built  at  a  time  when  civiliza- 
tion and  art  in  Rome  were  at  a  low  ebb,  was  a 
quaint  and  exquisite  structure,  composed  of  a  square 
tabernacle  supported  by  eight  columns  of  red  porphyry 
with  a  dome  of  gilt  bronze.  Peacocks,  dolphins,  and 
flowers,  also  of  gilt  bronze,  were  placed  on  the  four 
architraves,  from  which  jets  of  water  flowed  into  the 
basin  below.  The  border  of  the  basin  was  made  of  an- 
cient marble  bas-reliefs,  representing  panophes,  grif- 
fins, and  other  graceful  devices.  On  the  top  of  the 
structure  were  semicircular  bronze  ornaments  worked 
"a  jour,"  that  is,  in  open  rehef,  without  background, 
and  crowned  by  the  monogram  of  Christ.  In  the  centre 
of  the  tabernacle  and  under  the  dome  stood  a  bronze 
pine-cone.  This  fountain  stood,  not  in  the  Piazza  of  St. 
Peter's,  but  in  the  atrium,  or  the  square  portico,  which 
stood  in  front  and  on  the  right  hand  of  the  old  basQica. 

The  history  of  the  construction  and  destruction  of 
this  beautiful  fountain  of  the  dark  ages  is  an  excellent 
example  of  the  artistic  and  architectural  methods  of 
those  times.  Arts  and  crafts  had  already  sunk  to  so  low 
a  depth  that  there  were  no  longer  any  men  in  Rome 
capable  of  casting  or  carving  statues  like  those  of 
former  days,  and  marble  had  ceased  to  be  imported 
into  the  city.  Consequently  all  monuments  or  other 

[    II    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

artistic  structures  were  made  up  of  figures  in  marble  or 
bronze,  panels,  columns,  friezes,  and  similar  decora- 
tions, stolen  from  the  productions  of  the  great  days  of 
the  Empire.  The  Arch  of  Constantine,  erected  in  3i5, 
is  composed  to  such  an  extent  of  colmnns  and  sculp- 
ture from  a  Triumphal  Arch  of  Trajan  that  it  was  sur- 
named  "yEsop's  Crow";  and  the  Column  of  Phocas 
(608) ,  the  last  triumphal  monument  to  be  erected  in  im- 
perial Rome,  consists  of  a  shaft  and  capital  surmounted 
by  a  bronze  figure,  all  taken  from  earlier  as  well  as  dif- 
ferent structures.  Pope  Synunachus  was  only  following 
the  estabhshed  methods  when,  to  ornament  his  por- 
phyry columns  (themselves  probably  part  of  some 
classic  temple),  he  took  four  of  the  golden  peacocks 
which  had  been  originally  cast  for  a  decoration  to  the 
railing  of  the  walk  surrounding  the  Tomb  of  Hadrian, 
and,  furthermore,  placed  as  the  centrepiece  a  great 
pine-cone  taken  from  the  Baths  of  Agrippa.  These 
pine-cones  were  a  customary  feature  of  the  classic 
fountain,  as  the  scales  of  the  cone  present  natural  and 
graceful  outlets  for  the  falling  water.  Synunachus's 
fountain  was  one  of  the  beauties  of  Rome  in  the  days 
when  the  great  Gothic  King  Theodoric  ruled  and  loved 
the  city.  Three  hundred  years  later  it  captivated  the 
fancy  of  Charlemagne,  crowned  Emperor  in  St.  Peter's 
on  Christmas  Day,  800;  and  the  fountain  afterward 
erected  before  his  great  cathedral  at  Aix  is  ornamented 
with  a  huge  pine-cone  like  the  one  which  he  and  his 
Franks  had  seen  in  the  exquisite  fountain  of  St. 
Peter's. 

[    12    ] 


ST.    PETER'S 

Three  other  fountains  were  placed  before  the  church 
as  the  years  went  by.  They  are  described  by  Pope  Ce- 
lestinus  II  (ii43-ii44),  while  he  was  Canon  of  St. 
Peter's,  and  are  set  down  in  his  "Ordo  Romanus,"  or 
Itinerary,  or  Guide.  They  were  situated,  not  in  the 
atrium,  where  stood  the  fountain  of  Symmachus,  but 
below,  in  that  small  square  or  cortile  at  the  foot  of  the 
steps  of  St.  Peter's.  One  fountain  was  of  porphyry  and 
two  of  white  marble.  They  would  seem  to  have  disap- 
peared quite  early.  The  fountain  of  Symmachus  was 
described  in  iigo  by  Censius  Camerarius,  afterward 
Pope  Honorius  III,  and  it  stood  through  more  than 
eleven  centuries  of  the  confused  and  turbulent  history 
of  the  city.  It  survived  the  siege  and  capture  of  Rome 
by  Vitiges  in  BSy.  It  came  unscathed  through  the  sack 
of  the  city  by  the  Saracens  in  886,  and  that  of  the  Nor- 
mans in  io84 ;  and  stranger  still,  it  was  not  wrecked  by 
the  terrible  Lanzknechts  of  the  Constable  de  Bourbon 
in  1627.  Only  when  the  ages  of  violence  and  pillage 
were  passed,  did  this  historic  fountain  of  the  early 
church  succumb  to  a  fate  similar  to  that  of  the  Pagan 
moniunents,  out  of  which  it  had  itself  been  formed. 
When  in  1607  the  work  on  the  new  Church  of  St.  Peter, 
which  was  begun  in  i5o6  at  the  rear  of  the  old  sanctu- 
ary and  brought  forward  through  the  century,  had 
reached  the  atrium,  this  "gem  of  the  art  of  the  dark 
ages"  was  dehberately  demolished  by  Pope  Paul  V, 
who  melted  the  gilded  bronze  to  make  the  figure  of  the 
Virgin  now  surmounting  the  Column  of  Santa  Maria 
Maggiore.  Perhaps  the  metal  thus  obtained  was  more 

[    i3    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

than  he  needed;  possibly  some  artistic  or  antiquarian 
compunction  visited  the  pontiff — for  two  of  the  pea- 
cocks and  the  great  bronze  cone  were  spared.  They 
found  their  way  to  the  Vatican  Gardens,  and  now  they 
stand  in  the  Giardino  della  Pigna  waiting  for  the  next 
turn  of  Fortune's  wheel. 

Yet  another  fountain  was  once  associated  with  the 
basihca  of  St.  Peter.  It  was  erected  in  the  old  square 
while  the  fountain  of  Symmachus  still  stood  in  the 
atrium  to  the  right  of  the  main  entrance  to  the 
church.  About  the  year  i492,  Innocent  VIII  (Gio- 
vanni Battista  Cibo)  gathered  the  waters  from  springs 
on  the  Vatican  Hill  and  from  the  practically  ruined 
Aqueduct  of  Trajan  into  this  fountain,  which  was 
finished  by  his  successor,  Alexander  VI  (Borgia).  The 
design  was  greatly  admired  in  its  day.  It  consisted 
of  golden  bulls,  from  whose  mouths  the  water  fell 
into  a  granite  basin,  and  the  bull  was  the  emblem  of 
the  Borgia  family.  During  the  crowded  years  of  the 
famous  Cinque  Cento,  or  until  the  pontificate  of 
Gregory  XIII,  this  fountain  of  Innocent  VIII,  and 
the  old  fountain  of  Trevi  (restored  by  Sixtus  IV) 
suppHed  Rome  with  what  the  present  day  would  call 
its  pure  drinking  water.  They  contained  the  only 
water  brought  into  the  city  from  distant  springs,  for 
mediaeval  Rome  had  lost  all  but  two  of  her  great 
aqueducts,  and  these  were  constantly  falling  into 
disuse;  and  all  the  pontiffs,  painters,  poets,  and  archi- 
tects, as  well  as  the  populace  of  that  dramatic  period 
drank  the  doubtful  water  of  wells  and  of  the  Tiber. 

[    i4   ] 


ST.    PETER'S 

This  fountain  of  Innocent  VIII  was  destroyed  when 
the  modern  Piazza  of  St.  Peter's  replaced  the  very 
much  smaller  one  of  earher  days.  Probably  the  golden 
bulls  were  melted  down  into  other  shapes,  and  the  great 
red  granite  basin  was  used  by  Carlo  Maderno  for  the 
upper  basin  of  the  magnificent  new  fountain  which  he 
designed  and  executed  at  that  period  for  Paul  V,  and 
which  is  the  northern  one  of  the  two  fountains  of  the 
present  day  in  the  Piazza  of  St.  Peter's. 

Standing  between  the  fountains  of  St.  Peter's  is  an 
obehsk,  the  surpassing  interest  of  whose  history  adds 
not  a  little  to  the  importance  of  the  fountains  them- 
selves, and  indeed  of  the  entire  square.  It  is,  according 
to  Lanciani,  undoubtedly  the  obelisk  at  the  foot  of 
which  St.  Peter  was  crucified.  Formerly  the  place  of 
his  martyrdom  was  located  on  the  Janiculum  Hill,  on 
the  spot  where  San  Pietro  in  Montorio  was  built  by 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Isabella  of  Castile  to  com- 
memorate the  event.  Lately  this  location  of  the  site  of 
St.  Peter's  crucifixion  has  been  discredited,  but  it  is 
easy  to  see  how  that  mistake  occurred. 

Cahgula  had  brought  the  obelisk  from  Heliopohs 
some  time  during  the  four  short  years  of  his  reign  and 
placed  it  in  the  circus  he  began  to  build  in  those  gar- 
dens of  his  mother,  the  noble  Agrippina  the  elder, 
which  lay  along  the  northern  side  of  the  plain  between 
the  Janiculum  and  Mons  Vaticanus.  There  it  stood  on 
the  centre  of  the  spina,  the  long,  straight  hne  stretch- 
ing down  the  middle  of  the  arena  from  the  two  oppo- 
site goals  at  either  end.  Caligula  was  assassinated  be- 

[    i5    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

fore  he  could  finish  the  circus  and  it  was  completed 
some  thirteen  years  later  by  Nero,  under  whom  it  be- 
came the  scene  of  those  atrocities  against  the  Chris- 
tians which  have  rendered  his  reign  infamous.  St.  Peter 
was  crucified  one  year  before  the  death  of  Nero.  His 
cross  was  raised  on  the  spina  of  the  circus  at  an  exact 
distance  between  the  two  goals — metas — built  at  either 
end  of  the  amphitheatre,  and  therefore,  at  the  foot  of 
the  obehsk  which  stood  on  that  spot. 

Christian  tradition  handed  down  the  description  of 
the  place  "between  the  two  goals"  (inter  duas  metas). 
Now  meta  was  a  name  afterward  given  to  tombs  of 
pyramidal  shape,  two  of  which  existed  in  mediaeval 
Rome — one,  that  of  Caius  Cestius,  still  standing  next 
to  the  present  Protestant  Cemetery,  and  the  other  in 
the  Borgo  Vecchio,  destroyed  later  by  Alexander  VI. 
A  straight  line  drawn  from  one  of  these  tombs  to  the 
other  has  its  centre  in  a  point  on  the  Janiculum,  and 
therefore  this  spot  was  thought  to  be  the  exact  loca- 
tion of  St.  Peter's  martyrdom.  Even  to-day  visitors  to 
the  exquisite  Tempietto  of  Bramante,  erected  in  the 
cloister  of  the  Church  of  San  Pietro  in  Montorio,  are 
shown  below  its  pavement  the  very  stone  in  which  the 
cross  of  St.  Peter  was  fixed.  The  legend  of  this  location 
for  the  crucifixion  of  St.  Peter  grew  up  during  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  a  period  in  which  all  knowledge  of  the  au- 
thentic site  was  entirely  lost.  Modern  archaeology  has 
recently  succeeded  in  locating  this  position  and  its 
topography  can  now  be  easily  understood. 

When  the  Emperor  Constantine,  after  his  conversion 
[    i6    ] 


ST.    PETER'S 

to  Christianity,  determined  to  build  a  basilica  in  honor 
of  St.  Peter,  he  planned  to  erect  the  edifice  so  that  its 
centre  should  rise  directly  over  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter, 
who,  according  to  historical  documents,  was  buried  not 
far  from  the  scene  of  his  martyrdom.  To  do  this,  he 
found  himself  obhged  to  build  so  near  the  Circus  of 
Cahgula  and  Nero  that  the  southern  wall  of  his  edifice 
corresponded  exactly  to  the  northern  wall  of  the  Cir- 
cus. He  therefore  used  this  wall  of  the  Circus  as  the 
southern  foundation  wall  of  his  church.  This  naturally 
brought  the  southern  side  of  the  old  St.  Peter's  within 
a  very  short  distance  of  the  spina  of  the  Circus,  on 
which  stood  the  obehsk,  with  a  chapel  before  it  called 
the  Chapel  of  the  Crucifixion.  The  Chapel  disappeared 
seven  or  eight  centuries  ago,  but  not  before  its  true 
significance  had  been  quite  forgotten,  and  men  sup- 
posed the  name  to  refer  not  to  the  crucifixion  of  St. 
Peter  but  to  the  Crucifixion  of  Our  Lord.  An  old  en- 
graving by  Bonanni,  antedating  the  reign  of  Sixtus  V, 
shows  the  old  Church  of  St.  Peter  on  its  southern 
side,  with  the  obehsk,  still  tipped  by  its  Pagan  ball, 
standing  in  close  proximity.  When  the  plan  for  the  new 
Church  of  St.  Peter  was  accepted  it  was  seen  that  the 
southern  side  of  the  great  edifice  would  extend  so  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  original  church  that  it  must 
entirely  cover  the  spot  on  which  the  obehsk  was  stand- 
ing; and  as  the  connection  of  the  obelisk  with  the  mar- 
tyrdom of  St.  Peter  had  long  since  been  forgotten,  Pope 
Sixtus  V  conceived  the  idea  of  moving  the  obelisk  to  a 
more  conspicuous  and  important  position. 

[    17    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  obeUsk  now  forms  the 
central  feature  in  the  piazza  before  the  Cathedral  of 
Christendom;  while  the  place  of  St.  Peter's  crucifixion, 
that  site  of  transcendent  interest  to  all  Christians,  re- 
mains unidentified,  buried  beneath  the  masses  of  ma- 
sonry composing  the  Baptistery  on  the  southern  side  of 
the  vast  structure  which  bears  St.  Peter's  name. 


[    i8    ] 


SCOSSA  CAVALLI 


UlllilttlllllltlMIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 

'inillllllllMlllllllllM.i|T;,,, 

iiiiiiitDMiiiiiiiiiir'i  lYi 


Miiiif'i'iy 


!iii;iiii«»iiimi 

'lilllliiiiJJililliV 
llillllllJIIIIIIIl 
niiiiiiiiDiiimil 


'-'     ,1.    1  ili,'h'.<ll>iillllM 

/.,,)'l|j,li|V|i,^'lll:||ri 


■^ 


mii 


WfwIKiBPIPWpBji 


_=.j:  .Mi;Kfv:.„,(i|,,,,,,^i„/,((l(|(,,i,,l,,,|j(,|)|.,|.|l,,,i^. 


SCOSSA  CAVALLI 

This  work  of  Carlo  Maderno  belongs  to  that  group  of 
fountains  which  owe  their  origin  to  the  introduction 
into  Rome  of  the  Acqua  Paola.  The  lower  basin  stands 
about  three  feet  above  the  level  of  the  pavement.  It  is 
oblong  in  shape,  the  oval  broken  at  both  ends  by  grace- 
ful variations  in  the  curve.  The  secondary  basin  is 
much  smaller,  round  and  quite  shallow.  From  its  cen- 
tre rises  a  richly  carved  cup  much  resembhng  a  Co- 
rinthian capital,  this  cup  being  the  apex  of  the  central 
shaft,  upon  which  rests  the  second  basin,  and  the  main 
stream  of  water  spouts  upward  from  its  leaflike  con- 
volutions. The  proportions  of  the  fountain  are  excel- 
lent. It  is  neither  too  low  nor  too  high,  and  the  lower 
basin  is  large  enough  to  catch  and  retain  the  water 
which  pours  over  the  rim  of  the  upper  basin,  so  that  it 
does  not  wash  over  as  does  the  water  in  Maderno's 
much  more  magnificent  fountain  in  the  Square  of  St. 

[      21      ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Peter's.  The  central  shaft  of  the  Scossa  Cavalli  foun- 
tain has  a  Doric  massiveness  which  gives  a  background 
of  strength  to  the  whole  design  and  makes  all  the  more 
deUcate  the  play  of  the  four  slender  jets  of  water,  about 
five  feet  in  height,  which,  rising  at  equal  intervals  from 
the  lower  basin,  form  an  arch  around  the  upper  basin 
into  whose  shallow  water  they  fling  their  spray.  The 
crowned  eagle  and  griffin  of  the  Borghese  are  still  to  be 
discerned  on  the  half-obhterated  carving  of  the  central 
shaft.  The  kind  of  travertine  out  of  which  this  fountain 
is  made  is  so  susceptible  to  erosion,  and  has  become  so 
blackened  by  the  deposit  of  the  water,  that  the  whole 
structure  appears  far  older  than  it  is.  In  reality  it  has 
stood  here  little  more  than  three  hundred  years,  as  the 
Acqua  Paola  was  not  brought  to  Rome  until  the  time 
of  Pope  Paul  V.  This  splendor-loving  pontiff  deter- 
mined, on  his  accession  in  i6o5,  to  emulate  and,  if 
possible,  surpass  Pope  Sixtus  V,  whose  briUiant  pontif- 
icate antedated  his  own  by  less  than  a  score  of  years. 
Sixtus  V  had  built  the  first  great  aqueduct  of  modern 
Rome.  Paul  V  determined  to  build  the  second.  Sixtus 
V  had  christened  after  himself  the  water  which  he  had 
brought  to  Rome,  and  Paul  V  gave  his  name  to  the 
stream  which,  partly  by  using  the  all  but  ruined  Aque- 
duct of  Trajan,  he  had  brought  from  Bracciano  and 
its  hills.  Domenico  Fontana  had  built  for  Sixtus  V,  as 
the  chief  outlet  for  the  Acqua  Fehce,  the  fine  Fountain 
of  the  Moses  on  the  Viminal  Hill.  Giovanni  Fontana, 
brother  of  Domenico,  should  design  for  the  Acqua 
Paola  on  the  opposite  slope  of  the  Janiculum  a  yet  more 

[      22      ] 


SCOSSA    CAVALLI 

glorious  fountain  which  should  dispense  five  times  the 
amount  of  water  given  out  by  the  fountain  of  Sixtus  V. 
All  this  was  done,  and  from  the  heights  of  the  Janicu- 
lum  the  great  stream  descended  in  various  channels, 
and  was  widely  spread  over  the  Trastevere  or  that  por- 
tion of  the  city  lying  on  the  western  side  of  the  Tiber. 
One  channel  found  another  fine  outlet  in  the  fountain 
which  Carlo  Maderno,  nephew  of  Fontana,  also  built 
for  Paul  V  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Square  of  St. 
Peter's.  From  thence  the  water  was  conducted  down 
the  Via  Alessandrina  (now  the  Borgo  Nuovo)  to  this 
small  piazza  of  the  Scossa  Cavalli  where  Maderno  con- 
structed for  it  this  second  and  very  properly  less  splen- 
did fountain.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  water  as 
well  as  the  architectural  part  of  this  fountain  belongs 
to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century;  but  the 
interest  attaching  to  the  buildings  surrounding  the 
square  in  which  it  stands  dates  back  farther  than 
that,  dates  back  in  fact  to  the  crowded  days  of  the 
High  Renaissance,  when  this  prosaic  Httle  piazza  was 
a  centre  of  ardent  and  vivid  fife. 

The  long,  plain,  yet  dignified  building  to  the  south, 
now  called  the  Ora  Penitenzieri,  was  built  by  Cardinal 
Domenico  della  Rovere,  who  was  one  of  the  nephews  of 
Pope  Sixtus  IV  and  brother  to  Pope  Julius  II,  the 
friend  and  patron  of  Michelangelo.  To  the  west,  and 
on  the  corner  made  by  the  square  and  the  street  of  the 
Borgo  Nuovo,  stands  the  house  built  by  Bramante, 
and  purchased  by  Raphael.  The  ateher  of  the  "di- 
vine painter"  is  the  corner  room  on  the  second  floor. 

[    23    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Against  the  wall  behind  those  gloomy  windows  stood 
his  last  picture,  "The  Transfiguration,"  unfinished; 
and  on  a  bed  placed  at  the  foot  of  that  picture,  Ra- 
phael died. 

Another  death  agony  is  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  square,  for  in  the  gardens  behind  the  palace  to 
the  north,  now  called  Palazzo  Giraud-Torlonia,  was 
held  that  fatal  supper  where  the  Borgias,  father  and 
son,  fell  victims  to  the  poison  which  they  had  prepared 
for  the  cardinal  who  was  their  host  and  the  owner  of 
the  palace.  Even  the  legends  of  classic  Rome  seem 
somewhat  colorless  compared  with  the  memories  which 
haunt  this  dull  httle  square.  Nothing  could  be  more 
prosaic  than  its  present-day  appearance.  It  is  truly 
"empty,  swept,  and  garnished,"  but  the  devils  which 
have  gone  out  of  it  have  seldom  had  their  equal;  its 
memories  belong  to  a  more  splendid  and  to  a  more 
shameful  past  than  is  the  heritage  of  any  other  city  of 
our  modern  world. 

In  1492,  when  Columbus  had  discovered  the  West- 
em  Hemisphere  and  Copernicus  was  revolutionizing 
the  mediaeval  view  of  the  universe,  Rome  was  still 
emerging  from  the  shadow  under  which  she  had  lain 
while  the  popes  resided  at  Avignon.  In  1471  Sixtus  IV 
began  to  restore  and  embeUish  the  city,  and  with  him 
the  Holy  See  entered  upon  that  long  period  of  secular- 
ization which  reached  its  acme  of  infamy,  of  magnifi- 
cence, and  of  territorial  possessions  in  the  respective 
pontificates  of  the  Borgia,  Medici,  and  Barberini  popes. 
Each  of  these  pontiflfs  left  his  mark  on  some  particular 

[    24    ] 


Upper  basin  of  the  fountain  in  the  Piazza  Scossa  Cavalli. 


SCOSSA    CAVALLI 

quarter  of  the  city ;  and  although  in  the  years  following 
the  times  of  Alexander  VI  efforts  were  made  to  obUter- 
ate  the  memory  of  the  Borgias,  the  Borgo  Nuovo  re- 
mains forever  bound  up  with  their  history. 

Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  the  only  thoroughfare 
from  the  Bridge  of  St.  Angelo  to  the  Square  of  St. 
Peter's  was  the  Borgo  Vecchio.  It  was  a  narrow  and 
tortuous  street  and  quite  inadequate  to  the  traffic 
and  processions  and  pilgrimages  which  continually 
passed  between  its  rows  of  crowded  old  houses. 

Alexander  VI  formed  the  new  Borgo  by  cutting  a 
street  through  the  orchards,  gardens,  and  slums  of  this 
quarter,  and  by  granting  special  privileges  to  the  prop- 
erty owners  who,  within  a  specified  time  would  build 
on  it  houses  not  less  than  forty  feet  high.  The  Pope  was 
greatly  interested  in  his  new  street  and  christened  it  for 
himself,  the  Via  Alessandrina.  He  was  fortunate  in  hav- 
ing in  Rome  at  that  time  Bramante  of  Urbino,  who  was 
just  launched  on  that  career  of  popular  favor  which 
was  only  to  be  surpassed  in  length  of  days  or  in  exag- 
gerated estimation  by  the  career  of  Bernini  a  century 
later. 

A  sure  way  to  please  the  Pope  was  to  employ  some 
great  architect  and  to  erect  a  noble  house  upon  the  new 
thoroughfare.  Raphael,  who  was  amusing  himself  with 
architecture,  is  said  to  have  worked  with  Bramante  in 
the  construction  of  the  palace  afterward  owned  by  him, 
next  door  to  the  palace  owned  by  the  Queen  of  Cyprus,* 

*  The  Queen's  palace  was  in  the  rear  of  Raphael's  house  and  faced 
the  Borgo  Vecchio.     Opposite  to  it  was  the  palace  of  Cesare  Borgia. 

[     27     ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

and  the  great  room  on  the  piano  nobile,  the  beautiful 
wooden  ceiling  of  which  had  been  designed  by  Bra- 
mante,  was  a  stately  studio.  The  room  is  now  divided 
into  two  apartments;  but  it  is  easy  in  imagination  to 
sweep  away  the  modern  alterations  and  to  see  this 
most  beautiful,  gracious,  and  best-loved  of  all  Italian 
artists  at  work  here  among  his  pupils,  or  receiving 
with  an  exquisite  sweetness  and  modesty  the  greatest 
princes  of  the  Church  and  State. 

Rome  was  at  this  period  the  finest  marble  quarry  in 
the  world.  It  was  still  a  century  before  the  time  of  Six- 
tus  V  and  Domenico  Fontana;  the  Famese  had  not 
yet  built  their  great  palace  from  the  spoils  of  the  Baths 
of  Caracalla  and  other  noble  ruins;  the  last  sack  of 
Rome  was  still  thirty  years  in  the  future;  and  very 
httle  building  of  any  importance  had  been  carried  on 
through  the  long  period  of  the  popes'  absence  in  Avig- 
non. Bramante  found  the  richest  marbles  ready  to  his 
hand,  and  he  built  the  fagade  of  the  Palazzo  Giraud- 
Torionia  out  of  materials  taken  from  the  Basilica  Giu- 
ha  and  the  Temple  of  Janus.  However,  already  in 
Sixtus  IV's  time  the  rage  had  begun  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  old  monuments,  and  in  order  to  build  the  Via 
Alessandrina,  the  Pope  had  demohshed  a  Pagan  tomb 
which  had  once  been  a  landmark  in  the  Borgo.  Dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages  it  was  called  the  Tomb  of  Romu- 
lus, and  Raphael  has  painted  it  in  his  "Vision  of 
Constantine."  It  was  of  pyramidal  form,  like  the 
tomb  called  the  Pyramid  of  Cestius,  which  is  still 
standing  near  the  Protestant  Cemetery  on  the  road 

[    28    ] 


SCOSSA    CAVALLI 

to  St.  Paul's  Beyond  the  Walls.  Doubtless,  its  massive 
blocks  went  into  the  construction  of  the  new  palaces 
surrounding  the  little  square,  which  now  took  the 
place  of  the  old  tomb  as  the  central  point  in  that 
quarter  of  the  city.  In  this  square  the  two  chief  palaces 
are  connected  with  two  of  the  greatest  of  the  Pope's 
cardinals,  each  of  whom  had  found  it  to  his  advantage 
to  hold  a  post  in  foreign  lands. 

The  fiery  and  forceful  Giuho  della  Rovere,  who  gave 
his  name  to  the  palace  built  by  his  brother  Domenico 
and  now  known  as  the  Penitenzieri,  had  been  the  chief 
rival  of  Rodrigo  Borgia  in  the  papal  election  of  i492, 
and,  thereafter,  the  open  enemy  of  Alexander  VI.  It  is 
possible  he  might  never  have  become  that  Pope's  suc- 
cessor had  he  not  put  himself  under  the  protection  of 
Charles  VIII  of  France.  On  the  other  hand.  Cardinal 
Adriano  Cometo,  who  built  the  palace  now  the  Giraud- 
Torlonia,  stood  high  in  the  Pope's  good  graces.  Alex- 
ander made  him  collector  of  the  papal  revenues  in  Eng- 
land, where  he  was  already  known  as  the  papal  peace- 
maker between  Henry  VII  and  the  ill-starred  James  IV 
of  Scotland.  There  he  made  a  valuable  friend  in  no  less 
a  personage  than  King  Henry  VII  himself.  The  Tudor 
King  was  not  lavish  of  his  money,  but,  for  some  rea- 
son, he  gave  large  sums  to  Cardinal  Corneto  as  a  per- 
sonal gift. 

England  proved  a  safe  and  agreeable  asylum  for  the 
accomphshed  cardinal,  and  when  he  was  finally  recalled 
he  must  have  returned  to  Rome  with  some  misgivings. 
He  found  the  Curia,  as  well  as  the  city,  living  under 

I    29    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

that  spell  of  terror  which  the  Borgias,  father  and  son, 
had  woven  about  them.  Strange  stories,  horrible  sus- 
picions, and  mysterious  crimes  were  the  order  of  the 
day;  and  the  cardinal,  returning  from  his  bishopric 
of  Bath  and  Wells  and  the  frankness  and  simpUcity  of 
the  English  court,  must  have  found  the  change  little 
to  his  liking.  Very  probably  it  was  to  secure  the  Pope's 
friendship  that  he  engaged  the  services  of  Bramante 
and  began  to  build  a  magnificent  palace  on  the  Pope's 
new  thoroughfare.  But  while  Alexander  VI  loved  splen- 
dor, he  also  coveted  money.  The  new  palace  was  slow 
in  building,  and  before  it  was  completed,  the  Pope 
could  see  that  all  the  gold  which  the  cardinal  had  col- 
lected in  England  had  not  gone  into  the  papal  coffers. 
In  short,  he  comprehended  the  fact  that  his  Cardinal 
Adriano  Cometo  was  a  very  rich  man;  and  in  the 
sunamer  of  i5o3  he  sent  him  a  message  that  His  Hoh- 
ness  and  the  Duke  of  Valentino  (Cesare  Borgia)  would 
honor  him  by  taking  supper  with  him  on  the  night  of 
August  12.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  consternation 
with  which  the  message  was  received,  the  look  of  frozen 
horror  on  the  cardinal's  face  as  he  already  saw  himself 
dying  in  sudden  convulsions  or  fading  slowly  away 
with  a  fatal  and  mysterious  malady.  No  time  was  to 
be  lost,  and  a  large  share  of  the  cardinal's  English 
gold  bought  over  the  Pope's  majordomo  to  his  side. 
Possibly  some  of  the  deadly  work  had  already  begim 
before  the  bargain  was  struck.  Possibly  the  majordomo 
thought  it  best  to  appear  to  have  obeyed  the  Pope's 
orders,  even  at  the  risk  of  a  httle  torture  to  the  cardi- 

[    3o    ] 


SCOSSA    CAVALLI 

nal,  for  although  Cardinal  Corneto  survived  that  fatal 
supper,  it  was  said  that  the  skin  fell  from  him  in  strips. 
The  Pope  died  within  ten  days,  the  monstrous  appear- 
ance of  the  corpse  terrifying  all  who  beheld  it.  Only 
Cesare  Borgia's  almost  superhuman  vitaHty  saved  him 
from  a  like  fate. 

Years  after,  when  he  had  been  shut  out  forever  from 
Rome,  Cesare  told  his  friend  and  admirer  MachiaveUi 
that  the  results  of  this  supper  in  the  gardens  of  the  car- 
dinal's palace  had  frustrated  all  his  plans.  Cesare  had 
fully  determined  that  his  father's  successor  should  not 
humihate  and  despoil  him  as  his  father  had  despoiled 
and  humihated  the  nephews  of  his  predecessor.  Pope 
Sixtus  IV.  He  had  made  every  arrangement  to  make 
himself  master  of  Rome  as  soon  as  his  father  should 
die.  He  had,  so  he  told  the  author  of  "II  Principe," 
foreseen  and  provided  for  every  possible  difficulty.  The 
one  thing  he  had  not  been  able  to  foresee  was  that  he 
himself  should  be  too  ill  to  leave  his  bed. 

The  Borgias  passed  away  from  Rome.  Cardinal  della 
Rovere  was  made  Pope,  and  men  set  about  to  obliter- 
ate all  memories  of  that  brood  whose  crimes  had  made 
Rome  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  Christendom.  Gradu- 
ally, but  effectively,  the  work  was  accomphshed.  Alex- 
ander VI's  tomb  was  built  without  any  monument. 
The  Fountain  of  the  Gilded  Bulls,  the  emblem  of  the 
Borgias,  which  stood  before  St.  Peter's  was  destroyed. 
The  Borgia  apartments  in  the  Vatican  were  walled 
up,  and  remained  so  for  centuries.  The  nude  figure 
of  the  beautiful  GiuHa  Farnese  on  the  tomb  of  her 

I    3i    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

brother  Pope  Paul  III  in  St.  Peter's  was  covered 
with  painted  metal  draperies.  Even  the  Via  Alessan- 
drina  became  the  Borgo  Nuovo. 

Cardinal  Adriano  Cometo  lived  through  the  pon- 
tificate of  Pope  Julius  II  and  into  that  of  Pope 
Leo  X;  but  the  fame  of  his  riches  did  at  last  work 
his  undoing.  Leo  X,  who  needed  money  as  much  as 
Alexander  VI,  insisted  that  the  cardinal  was  privy  to  a 
conspiracy  against  his  life.  Cometo  was  deprived  of 
his  cardinalate,  even  degraded  from  the  priesthood, 
and  was  obliged  to  make  his  escape  from  Rome.  He 
died  in  obscurity,  leaving  his  beautiful  palace,  still 
unfinished,  to  his  benefactor  King  Henry  VII,  who 
made  it  the  residence  of  the  English  ambassador. 

A  century  later,  when  Mademo  built  the  fountain 
of  the  Scossa  Cavalli  for  Pope  Paul  V,  Cardinal  Cor- 
neto's  palace  had  again  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Romans,  where  it  has  remained.  The  Reformation  had 
swept  over  England,  and  there  was  no  longer  an  Eng- 
lish ambassador  to  the  Papal  See. 


[    32    ] 


PIAZZA  PIA 


No  one  can  walk  the  Roman  streets  without  perceiv- 
ing, and  ahnost  at  once,  that  here  time  is  of  no  impor- 
tance. It  is,  in  fact,  an  absolutely  negligible  quantity. 
Buildings  and  monuments  dating  from  widely  diverse 
periods  stand  side  by  side,  and  it  is  in  no  wise  incon- 
gruous from  the  Roman  standpoint  to  find  at  the  head 
of  the  Borgo  (the  ancient  Leonine  city)  one  of  the  very 
latest  fountains  of  papal  Rome.  It  is  a  charming  httle 
creation,  quite  consciously  harking  back  to  the  great 
days  of  the  papacy  and  rebuking  by  its  sober,  yet  im- 
aginative sculpture  those  geometrical  designs  or  extrav- 
agant ebullitions  of  fancy — the  foimtains  of  the  pres- 

[    35    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

ent  regime.  It  stands  in  the  Piazza  Pia,  against  that 
narrow  fagade  which  blunts  the  point  of  the  long  angle 
or  wedge-shaped  block  of  buildings  lying  between  the 
Borgo  Vecchio  and  the  Borgo  Nuovo.  Its  Fontanesque 
mostra  is  composed  of  two  beautiful  white  Carrara  col- 
umns with  Corinthian  capitals  supporting  a  pediment 
and  entablature  on  which  is  an  inscription  to  the  effect 
that  the  fountain  was  erected  by  Pius  IX  in  the  six- 
teenth year  of  his  pontificate,  which  would  make  it  the 
year  1862.  The  sculptural  part  of  the  fountain  bears  a 
certain  resemblance  to  the  work  of  Luigi  Amici  and 
Bitta  Zappala,  the  artists  who  not  many  years  later 
executed  the  modem  figures  in  the  side  fountains  of 
the  Piazza  Navona. 

The  Piazza  Pia  fountain  might  also  be  ascribed  to 
Tenerani,  a  distinguished  sculptor  of  Pius  IX's  pon- 
tificate, who,  in  his  devotion  to  the  Pope,  did  not  dis- 
dain to  design  some  of  the  triumphal  devices  with 
which  Rome  welcomed  back  Pio  Nono  after  Gaeta. 
But  Tenerani's  bust  is  among  the  "Silent  Company 
of  the  Pincio,"  and  if  the  Httle  fountain  were 
indeed  his  work,  the  fact  would  be  known.  As  it 
is,  the  sculptor's  name  seems,  for  the  present,  at 
least,  to  have  been  forgotten  in  the  confusion  at- 
tendant upon  the  transformation  of  papal  into  Itahan 
Rome. 

The  fountain  originally  held  Paola  water,  and  the 
charming  httle  vase  and  dolphins  composed  of  white 
Carrara  have  become  through  the  deposits  of  this  water 
so  black  that  the  beauty  of  the  fountain  is  distinctly 

[    36    ] 


PIAZZA    PIA 

marred.  This  fountain  takes  the  place  of  an  earlier  one 
executed  by  Carlo  Maderno  and  called  the  Mask  of  the 
Borgo.  The  design  was  a  large  mask  from  which  water 
flowed  into  a  pilgrim  shell  over  which  perched  the 
Borghese  eagle,  while  two  lions'  heads  on  either  side 
spouted  additional  streams.  As  this  first  fountain  was 
in  travertine  it  had  in  all  probabihty  succumbed  to  the 
disastrous  effects  of  the  Paola  water,  which  seems  to 
disintegrate  as  well  as  to  discolor  some  varieties  of  that 
stone. 

There  is  in  the  Piazza  Mastai  another  fountain 
erected  by  Pius  IX.  And  he  also  instituted  several 
washing  troughs  in  the  Trastevere  among  the  poor, 
for  whom  he  had  always  a  sincere  and  profound  sym- 
pathy. Those  who  would  render  justice  to  this  last 
"Papa  Re"  should  drive  up  the  magnificent  approach 
to  the  Quirinal  Palace.  This  modern  driveway  and  ma- 
sonry were  erected,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  tablet  on 
the  sustaining  wall  of  the  terrace,  for  Pius  IX  by  his 
great  architect  and  engineer  Virginio  Vespignani.  They 
give  the  finishing  touch  of  magnificence  to  the  Piazza 
of  the  Quirinal,  originally  laid  out  on  its  present  grade 
and  in  its  fine  proportions  by  Domenico  Fontana  for 
Sixtus  V  (some  two  hundred  and  eighty  years  earher). 
This  approach  to  the  Quirinal  and  the  great  buttress 
walls  of  the  CoKseum  might  easily  be  enough  to  prove 
Pius  IX's  care  for  the  city;  but,  as  with  those  of  his 
predecessors  who  had  the  welfare  of  their  people  most 
at  heart,  his  chief  claim  upon  the  memory  of  the  Ro- 
mans Hes  in  the  interest  which  he  took  in  the  city's 

[    37    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

water  supply.  Pius  IX  gave  his  permission  to  an  Eng- 
lish company  to  introduce  into  Rome  the  rediscovered 
springs  of  the  Marcian  water.  These  springs  had  been 
first  brought  to  Rome  by  the  Marcian  aqueduct  in  the 
years  i44-i4o  B.  C.  This  aqueduct  was  the  first  of  the 
true  high-level  aqueducts,  and  covered  its  path  of 
fifty-eight  miles  on  great  arches  which  brought  it  to 
Rome  at  the  Porta  Maggiore  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
five  feet  above  sea-level.  The  two  aqueducts  which  an- 
tedated it — the  Appian  and  the  Anio  Vetus — ran  most 
of  the  distance  underground,  the  Anio  Vetus  appearing 
above  ground  for  only  eleven  hundred  feet,  while  the 
Appian  (the  fiirst  of  all  the  Roman  aqueducts)  was  car- 
ried overground  on  low  arches  for  three  hundred  feet, 
and  actually  entered  the  city  fifty  feet  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth.  The  springs  of  the  Marcia  are  now 
called  the  Second  and  Third  Serena  and  are  situated  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Anio  above  Tivoli,  on  the  north  side 
of  the  stream,  near  Agosta.  The  original  Marcian  aque- 
duct had  been  destroyed  by  Fontana  when  he  was 
collecting  material  to  build  the  Acquedotto  Fehce.  A 
portion,  however,  of  the  ancient  masonry  remains,  and 
although  to-day  the  Marcian  water  comes  to  Rome 
chiefly  through  modern  iron  pipes,  some  parts  of  its 
passage  lead  through  the  old  stone  channels.  The  water 
now  enters  Rome  through  the  Porta  Pia  at  an  altitude 
of  two  hundred  feet;  thus  it  ranks  next  to  the  Paola, 
which  is  two  hundred  and  three  feet  above  the  sea- 
level.  The  Marcia  ranks  next  to  the  Virgo  in  abun- 
dance, and  at  present  supplies  most  of  the  dweUing 

[    38    ] 


PIAZZA    PIA 

houses  in  Rome.  Its  history  is  embodied  in  its  full 
name,  Acqua  Marcia  Pia. 

Pius  IX  made  his  last  public  appearance  as  sov- 
ereign pontiff  when  this  water  was  introduced  into 
Rome.  This  occurred  on  September  i8,  1870,  just  two 
days  before  the  famous  "Venti  Settembre,"  when 
the  Itahan  troops  entered  Rome  through  a  breach  in  the 
Porta  Pia.  The  fountain  which  was  destined  to  be  the 
last  foimtain  of  papal  Rome  stood  in  the  Piazza  delle 
Terme, — not  where  the  present  one  stands,  but  off  to 
one  side,  for  the  city  was  still  papal  Rome  and  the  great 
Villa  Negroni  (formerly  Montalto)  of  Pope  Sixtus  V 
then  covered  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  present  rail- 
way station.  Within  the  gardens  of  that  villa  many  of 
the  original  Acqua  Felice  fountains  were  still  flowing, 
and  one  latter-day  inhabitant  of  the  villa  tells  how,  as 
a  child,  she  often  looked  down  at  night  from  her  nurs- 
ery windows  upon  an  old  fountain  about  which  stood  a 
circle  of  Httle  Campagna  foxes  drinking  from  its  cy- 
press-guarded waters.  The  Pope  drove  to  the  inaugura- 
tion of  his  Marcia  Pia  amid  a  vast  concourse  of  people 
who  strewed  flowers  and  shouted:  "King,  Bang!" 
There  were,  however,  few  distinguished  people  at  the 
ceremony.  He  drank  a  cup  of  the  water,  praised  its  pur- 
ity and  freshness  and  thanked  the  magistrates  for  giv- 
ing it  his  name.  It  was  the  last  pubhc  act  of  his  sov- 
ereign pontificate,  and  derives  both  significance  and 
dignity  from  that  long  Kst  of  popes  who,  since  the  time 
of  Hadrian  I  had  constituted  themselves  guardians 
and  builders  of  Roman  aqueducts. 

[    39    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

The  fountain  which  Pius  IX  thus  inaugurated  has 
been  swept  away  to  make  room  for  the  present  bronze 
affair.  But  the  Acqua  Marcia  Pia  now  flows  in  the 
Pope's  pretty  fountain  of  Piazza  Pia,  so  that  here  in 
the  Borgo,  the  ancient  "Porch  of  St.  Peter's,"  we  find 
the  last  water  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  fountain 
in  the  Piazza  Mastai,  the  last  fountain,  of  papal  Rome. 


[  4o   ] 


CAMPIDOGLIO 


CAMPIDOGLIO 

The  three  fountains  of  the  CampidogUo  have  one 
fundamental  characteristic  in  common — that  of  being 
a  part  of  Rome  from  a  period  of  great  antiquity.  Like 
those  famihes  who  "were  there  when  the  Conqueror 
came,"  the  sculptures  which  adorn  these  fountains 
have  been  in  Rome  since  Christian  Rome  began.  All 
the  statues  have  occupied  their  present  positions  a 
comparatively  short  time,  and  have  passed  through 
many  vicissitudes  before  reaching  the  places  they  now 
hold.  In  fact,  each  fountain  of  the  Campidogho  is  a 
fountain  with  a  past.  The  sculptural  part  of  each  is  a 
survival  of  some  artistic  design  or  idea  antedating  to 
a  remote  period  the  time  of  its  conversion  into  the 
fountain  of  to-day. 

[   43   ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

The  general  view  of  the  Campidoglio  comprises  the 
stairway  called  "  La  Cordonata,"  the  piazza  at  its  sum- 
mit crowned  by  the  Palace  of  the  Senators,  with  the 
Musemn  of  the  Capitol  to  the  left  and  the  Palace  of 
the  Conservatori  on  the  right;  and  it  is  so  impressive 
in  its  architectm^al  majesty  that  the  fountain  which  is 
a  part  of  it  all  keeps  its  true  place  in  the  great  compo- 
sition, and  is  recognized  only  as  a  note  in  the  general 
harmony  of  proportion,  design,  and  decoration.  This 
is,  of  course,  as  it  should  be — as  Michelangelo  meant  it 
to  be  when,  some  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  years 
ago,  the  vision  of  the  Campidoglio  as  it  now  stands  un- 
folded itself  in  his  brain.  Not  that  every  detail  of  the 
magnificent  reality  is  as  he  planned  it.  The  fatality 
which  followed  him,  spoiling  or  changing  nearly  all  his 
great  designs,  has  been  at  work  here;  and  it  is  the 
fountain  which  has  suffered. 

This  fountain,  which  is  a  part  of  the  approach  to  the 
Senate  House,  was  to  have  as  its  central  statue  a  fig- 
ure of  Jove.  Vasari,  who  is  quite  carried  away  with 
Master  Michelangelo's  beautiful  design,  describes  the 
fountain  as  if  it  were  already  done, — Jove  in  the  centre 
and  the  two  river-gods  on  either  side.  But  Michelan- 
gelo and  the  enthusiastic  Vasari  had  been  dead  for 
years  when  Sixtus  V  brought  the  Acqua  Felice  to  the 
Campidoglio  and  finally  erected  the  fountain.  He 
placed  in  the  noble  niche  where  a  colossal  and  majes- 
tic Jupiter  should  have  stood,  the  antique  statue  of  a 
Minerva  done  over  to  represent  Rome.  The  white 
marble  head  and  arms  of  this  statue  are  modern  res- 
torations, but  the  prophyry  torso  was  found  at  Cori, 

[   44   1 


CAMPIDOGLIO 

and  its  air  of  undeniable  antiquity  is  all  that  saves  this 
curiously  inadequate  figure  from  utter  insignificance. 
It  is  too  small  for  the  niche  it  occupies,  and  is  so  out  of 
proportion  to  its  surroundings  and  on  so  different  a 
plane  of  artistic  treatment  that  it  would  quite  spoil  any 
creation  less  triumphantly  dominant  than  is  this  whole 
staircase  and  fagade. 

The  two  river-gods  which  also  adorn  this  fountain 
are  very  old.  Together  with  Marforio,  now  to  be  found 
in  the  Museum  of  the  Capitol,  they  have  the  distinc- 
tion of  never  having  been  buried  since  the  downfall  of 
Rome.  Once  they  stood  before  "that  most  magnifi- 
cent of  all  Roman  temples  " — Aurehan's  Temple  of  the 
Sun.  Later  they  belonged  to  the  Mediaeval  Museum  of 
Statues,  a  collection  kept  in  or  near  the  old  papal  palace 
of  the  Lateran,  where  they  had  been  called  Bacchus 
and  Saturn.  The  Nile,  who  should  have  been  unmis- 
takable because  of  his  emblem  of  the  Sphinx,  has  now 
his  proper  designation;  but  the  other  statue  has  a  curi- 
ous history.  It  was  originally  the  River  Tigris,  a  river 
famihar  to  the  Romans  since  the  wars  with  Mithra- 
dates.  When,  under  Paul  III,  Michelangelo  placed 
these  statues  in  their  present  position,  some  influential 
person  suggested  that  the  Tigris,  no  longer  of  any  in- 
terest to  the  Romans,  should  be  changed  into  the 
Tiber.  The  emblem  of  the  Tigris — a  tiger — was  then 
altered  to  represent  the  Roman  Wolf,  and  the  Twins 
were  added.  Pirro  Ligorio  tells  the  story,  and  goes  on 
to  say  that  the  fingers  of  one  of  the  Twins  were  origi- 
nally a  part  of  the  Tiger's  fur. 

The  erection  of  the  bronze  equestrian  statue  of  Mar- 
[   45    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

cus  Aurelius  in  the  centre  of  the  piazza  was  the  first 
step  in  the  design  of  the  Campidoglio  of  to-day,  for 
Michelangelo's  admiration  of  the  statue  had  been 
shared  by  Paul  III,  and  the  Pope  brought  it  hither  in 
1 538  when  the  embellishment  of  Rome,  originally 
begun  in  honor  of  the  visit  in  i534  of  Charles  V,  had 
become  with  both  Pope  and  citizens  a  great  and  per- 
manent interest.  This  statue  also  had  been  a  part  of 
that  Mediaeval  Museum  in  the  Lateran  which  was 
probably  one  of  the  places  to  visit  when  Charlemagne 
came  to  Rome  to  be  crowned  in  old  St.  Peter's  on 
Christmas  Day,  800.  The  fagade  of  the  Senate  House, 
which  forms  the  background  to  the  piazza  and  its  stat- 
ues, is  built  in  great  part  of  travertine,  so  the  struc- 
tural part  of  the  fountain  is  of  the  same  material.  This 
consists  of  a  huge  niche,  sixteen  and  a  half  feet  in 
height,  sunk  into  the  foundation  of  the  terrace  before 
the  main  entrance  to  the  Senate  House.  On  either  side 
of  the  niche  is  a  pair  of  Doric  pilasters,  which  support 
the  floor  of  the  terrace  and  its  beautiful  balustrade.  A 
great  stairway,  down  which  the  balustrade  continues, 
connects  this  entrance  of  the  Senate  House  with  the 
piazza  below;  and  the  foundation  of  these  steps,  form- 
ing triangular  wings  to  the  niche,  serves  as  a  back- 
ground to  the  river-gods.  These  figures  he  one  on  either 
side  of  the  semicircular  basins  containing  the  water. 
The  simphcity  of  the  design  partakes  of  the  inevitable. 
Considering  it  from  any  point  of  view,  it  is  not  only 
impossible  to  think  of  anything  better,  it  is  impossible 
to  think  of  anything  else.  If  it  is  not  the  work  of  Mi- 

[   46    ] 


View  of  the  Piazza  del  Campidoglio  from  the  left  side  of  the 
Cordonata. 


CAMPIDOGLIO 

chelangelo,  there  must  have  been  two  Michelangelos 
in  i538 ! 

In  Piranesi's  engraving  of  the  CampidogKo  a  fine 
balustrade  Uke  the  one  on  the  stairway  surrounds  the 
fountain.  It  follows  the  contour  of  the  lower  basin  and 
stands  at  some  three  or  four  feet  distant  from  it.  This 
balustrade,  which  has  disappeared,  enhanced  distinctly 
the  beauty  of  the  fountain,  bringing  it  more  into  har- 
mony with  the  entire  composition. 

The  river-god  is  one  of  the  earUest  sculptural  per- 
sonifications of  natural  phenomena.  In  these  days 
comparatively  little  heed  is  paid  to  the  smaller  water- 
ways, so  the  modern  spirit  fails  to  see  the  significance 
of  these  conventionahzed  figures.  To  the  ancients,  how- 
ever, the  statues  personified  that  physical  object  upon 
which  all  civilized  fife  depended — a  great  stream  of 
unfaihng  water.  The  rivers  of  Greece  were  small,  while 
the  Roman  Empire  contained  some  of  the  largest  in 
the  world;  but  the  ideas  they  represented  were  the 
same.  The  river,  small  or  great,  made  the  city.  The 
river  gave  food  and  drink  to  the  inhabitants,  con- 
nected them  with  the  outside  world,  brought  trade, 
turned  the  mills,  defended  the  city  from  invasion,  car- 
ried away  pestilence,  cleansed,  purified,  and  supported 
all  the  works  of  men;  and  therefore  Father  Tiber  and 
his  brothers  were  to  be  worshipped  and  to  be  honored, 
and  statues  were  to  be  set  up  to  them  in  pubhc  places, 
so  that  men  should  remember  what  they  owed  to  their 
river.  The  river  is  always  personified  as  a  benign  and 
majestic  figure  in  the  full  strength  of  mature  manhood, 

[49    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

with  long  and  abundant  hair  and  beard.  The  lower 
Umbs  are  draped,  so  that  the  mystery  of  partial  con- 
cealment hangs  about  him.  On  one  arm  he  bears  a  horn 
of  plenty;  while  with  the  other  he  reclines  upon  some 
support,  which  is  usually  the  characteristic  emblem  of 
the  particular  stream  which  he  represents. 

Power,  abundance,  and  calm  strength  are  the  quali- 
ties of  a  great  river;  and  these  quahties  the  ancients 
most  adequately  expressed  in  their  own  pecuKar 
medium,  which  was  sculpture.  Men  of  to-day  put 
their  ideas  into  music,  or  more  explicitly  into  prose 
or  verse,  and  there  are  still  those  who  appreciate  the 
significance  of  the  river.  Washington  Irving's  epithet 
of  the  "lordly  Hudson"  proves  the  hold  that  great 
river  had  over  his  perception  and  imagination;  and 
not  any  statue  of  a  river-god  can  give  the  conception 
of  a  river  which  is  to  be  found  in  Arnold's  "Sohrab 
and  Rustum": 

"But  the  majestic  river  floated  on. 
Out  of  the  mist  and  hum  of  that  low  land. 
Into  the  frosty  starlight,  and  there  moved. 
Rejoicing,  through  the  hush'd  Chorasmian  waste. 
Under  the  soHtary  moon; — he  flow'd 
Right  for  the  polar  star,  past  Orgunj^, 
Brimming,  and  bright,  and  large;  then  sands  begin 
To  hem  his  watery  march,  and  dam  his  streams. 
And  split  his  currents;  that  for  many  a  league 
The  shorn  and  parcell'd  Oxus  strains  along 
Through  beds  of  sand  and  matted  rushy  isles — 
Oxus,  forgetting  the  bright  speed  he  had 
In  his  high  mountain-cradle  in  Pamere, 
A  foil'd  circuitous  wanderer — till  at  last 

[    5o    ] 


CAMPIDOGLIO 


The  long'd-for  dash  of  waves  is  heard,  and  wide 
His  luminous  home  of  vvaters  opens,  bright 
And  tranquil,  from  whose  floor  the  new-bathed  stars 
Emerge,  and  shine  upon  the  Aral  Sea." 


MARFORIO 

The  nearest  approach  which  the  Romans  have  left 
us  to  such  grandeur  as  this  is  to  be  found  in  their  statue 
called  Marforio.  The  north  wing  of  the  CampidogHo 
group  is  known  as  the  Museum  of  the  Capitol,  and  it 
is  in  the  entrance  court  of  this  edifice  that  Meo^forio  is 
now  to  be  seen.  If  this  most  majestic  of  aU  river-gods 
ever  represented  any  particular  river,  the  name  of  that 
river  was  forgotten  centuries  ago.  His  title  of  Marforio 
was  given  him  long  since,  because  he  once  poured  the 
water  into  a  fountain  which  stood  in  a  small  square 
to  the  left  of  the  Senate  House,  where  Augustus  had 
erected  the  Martis  Formn.  There  he  seems  to  have 
remained  throughout  the  darkest  days  of  Rome's  de- 
cadence, surviving  every  vicissitude,  and  always  re- 
spected by  the  half-barbarous  Romans  of  that  time. 

[    5i    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Gregory  XIII  (Boncompagni,  i572-i585)  is  responsi- 
ble for  removing  Marforio  from  this  classic  position  and 
for  separating  him  at  that  time  from  the  huge  granite 
basin  into  which  flowed  the  water  from  the  mn  on 
which  he  is  leaning.  Thenceforth  the  basin  has  a  history 
of  its  own,  while  Marforio's  odyssey  (he  wandered  for 
some  time  after  leaving  his  old  home)  finally  brought 
him  to  the  Campidoglio.  Sixtus  V  then  placed  him  on 
the  left  side  of  the  piazza,  facing  the  south  wing.  This 
south  wing,  known  as  the  Palazzo  dei  Conservatori, 
was  the  first  of  the  present  group  of  buildings  to  be 
erected,  Tonunaso  de'  Cavalieri — a  Roman  gentleman 
and  one  of  Michelangelo's  few  intimates — having  had 
charge  of  its  construction  in  Michelangelo's  lifetime. 
The  north  wing,  or  the  Museum  of  the  Capitol,  was 
not  done  until  the  architect  Rainaldi  erected  it  for 
Innocent  X  (Pamphili),  twelve  pontificates  after  the 
reign  of  Paul  III.  During  a  period  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty  years  Marforio  remained  where  Sixtus 
had  placed  him,  and  then  Clement  XII  (Corsini)  in- 
stalled him  in  the  court  of  the  Capitoline  Museum, 
and  again  he  was  given  a  fountain  to  feed  and 
protect. 

Marforio's  career  after  he  had  been  parted  from  his 
basin  was  a  curious  one.  Bored,  perhaps,  by  the  lonely 
magnificence  of  his  new  surroundings,  he  fell  into  evil 
ways.  He  became  the  partner  of  Pasquino  1  Pasquino, 
the  mutilated  torso  from  an  old  Greek  group  of  statu- 
ary, stands  at  the  farthest  corner  of  the  Braschi  Palace 
(now  the  Ministero  dell'  Intemo).  He  had  first  been  set 

I    52    ] 


CAMPIDOGLIO 

up  there  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  VI;  and  from  that 
time  he  had  become  the  medium  for  the  popular  and 
anonymous  criticisms  of  the  government.  His  name  of 
Pasquino  was  taken  from  a  witty  tailor  or  barber  who 
lived  near  the  Palazzo  Orsini  and  whose  sallies  against 
those  in  authority  greatly  deUghted  the  Roman  people. 
It  became  the  custom  to  affix  anonymous  couplets  or 
epigrams  to  the  old  torso,  which  thus  obtained  the 
name  of  Pasquino,  and  the  epigrams  came  to  be  known 
as  pasquinades;  and  from  the  days  of  the  Borgias  to 
the  time  of  Napoleon,  and  even  later,  most  of  the  cur- 
rent witticisms  or  scathing  reflections  upon  pubUc 
events  or  notable  personages  were  ascribed  to  Pas- 
quino. When  Marforio  took  up  his  abode  in  the  Piazza 
of  the  CampidogKo,  he  became  to  the  Romans  the  part- 
ner of  Pasquino.  According  to  a  modem  authority, 
Marforio  never  originated  the  sally.  His  function  was 
to  put  the  question  which  elicited  the  witty  retort,  or 
to  reply  in  kind  to  Pasquino's  interrogatories.  With 
Marforio's  incarceration  in  the  court  of  the  Museum 
the  long  dialogue  came  to  an  end;  and  a  century  later 
the  passing  of  papal  Rome  brought  Pasquino's  career 
to  its  final  close.  Modern  freedom  of  the  press  leaves 
no  place  for  Pasquino;  and  it  may  be  said  of  him  that, 
Marforio  being  gone, 

"...  of  sheer  regret 
He  died  soon  after." 

This  is  not  strictly  true,  for,  although  the  statues 
themselves  no  longer  have  a  part  in  the  game,  it  still 
goes  on.  One  of  the  most  popular  of  the  Roman 

[    53    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

newspapers  still  publishes  questions  and  repartee  by 
Marforio  and  Pasquino. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  study  for  a  short  time  the  va- 
rious river-gods  in  Rome,  such  as  those  of  the  Tiber 
and  the  Nile,  here  at  the  Capitol,  or  Fontana's  statue 
in  the  Quattro  Fontane,  or  the  modern  work  in  the 
western  fountain  of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  and  then  to 
return  to  Marforio,  to  appreciate  the  immense  artistic 
superiority  of  the  latter.  Marforio  is  truly  a  river-god, 
a  personification  of  all  or  any  of  the  earth's  rivers.  The 
ancient  and  forgotten  sculptor  has  given  to  the  ponder- 
ous stone  a  fluid  quahty  which  is  really  wonderful.  To 
make  the  hair  and  beard  merge  into  the  god's  breast 
and  shoulders  would  have  been  simple  both  in  concep- 
tion and  execution,  but  only  a  genius  could  have  se- 
cured to  the  massive  and  supine  figure  that  appearance 
of  being  outstretched  in  powerful  yet  melting  length 
along  the  surface  of  things.  Artists  of  the  Renaissance 
from  Rome  and  from  beyond  the  Alps  always  speak  of 
the  gran  simulacra  a  giacere,  an  expression  difficult  to 
anghcize,  but  which  is  an  attempt  to  describe  this  sin- 
gular quahty  of  a  static  position  instinct  with  contin- 
uous and  onward  flowing  movement.  Finally,  the  god's 
face  is  full  of  genuine  power  and  benignity  and  is  the 
adequate  consummation  of  the  sculptor's  ideal.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  Marforio  has  become  a  type.  Vasari,  for 
instance,  speaks  of  young  Baccio  Bandinelli  making  "a 
Marforio"  out  of  snow,  as  not  long  before  the  youth- 
ful Michelangelo  had  made  a  faun  from  the  same  per- 
ishable material. 

[    54    ] 


CAMPIDOGLIO 

For  a  thousand  years — and  we  do  not  know  for  how 
much  longer — Marforio  has  been  a  part  of  the  city's 
hfe.  He  has  survived  the  Norman  pillage  in  io84,  as 
well  as  the  great  sack  of  Rome  in  1527.  As  a  kindly 
god,  dispensing  water  to  rich  and  poor,  he  has  had  his 
part  in  all  the  triumphs  and  disasters,  and  has  shared 
the  ups  and  downs  of  life  not  only  with  the  city  but 
with  her  children.  Roman  and  barbarian,  patrician  and 
plebeian,  slave  and  citizen.  Pagan  and  Christian — all 
have  drunk  from  his  fountain.  What  has  he  not  seen, 
and  not  heard  I  It  was  an  unerring  instinct  for  the  fit- 
ness of  things  which  made  him  Pasqulno's  gossip,  and 
his  present  honorable  but  unnatural  seclusion  from  the 
city's  busy  streets  and  squares  is  commonly  attributed 
not  to  Pope  Clement  XII's  lack  of  imagination  but,  on 
the  contrary,  to  his  recognition  of  Marforio's  mahcious 
influence  over  the  popular  mind.  A  tablet  has  been  set 
up  in  the  house  which  is  built  over  the  site  where  his- 
tory finds  him.  Number  49,  Via  Marforio.  In  short, 
Marforio  belongs  to  that  curious  class  of  inanimate 
things  which  have  developed  a  personahty;  injury  to 
him  would  arouse  fierce  popular  resentment;  and  were 
he  to  be  destroyed,  the  Romans  would  feel  that  they 
had  lost  not  a  work  of  art  but  a  personal  friend. 

TEffi  LION 

The  third  fountain  in  the  trio  of  the  Campidogho  is 
to  be  found  in  the  upper  garden  of  the  Palazzo  dei  Con- 
servatori — the  building  to  the  right  hand  in  the  ascent 
of  the  Cordonata.  It  can  hardly  be  called  a  fountain, 

[    55    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

since  it  is  merely  a  large  basin  of  water  surrounding 
some  rockwork  on  which  stands  an  old  bit  of  sculpture 
of  a  character  manifestly  inappropriate  to  the  senti- 
ment of  a  fountain.  It  represents  a  lion  tearing  out  the 


vitals  of  a  horse  which  it  has  sprung  upon  and  borne 
to  the  ground.  This  much-restored  fragment  is  of  reed 
importance  from  an  artistic  standpoint,  while  as  a 
Roman  antiquity  it  has  extraordinary  interest.  The 
marble  bears  distinct  traces  of  having  been  subjected 
to  the  action  of  water,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was 
found  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago  in  the  bed  of 
the  River  AJmo.  Nothing  is  known  of  its  history  pre- 
vious to  that  discovery. 

The  Almo  is  a  Uttle  brook  in  the  Campagna  not  far 
from  Rome,  rising  in  the  hills  between  the  Via  Appia 
and  Via  Latina  and  emptying  into  the  Tiber.  Its  mod- 
em name  is  Acquataccio.  The  Almo  was  connected 
with  the  ancient  worship  of  the  goddess  Cybele,  whose 
sacred  image  was  ceremonially  washed  in  it  each  year 
on  the  27th  of  March  by  the  priests.  This  rehgious 
ceremony,  doubtless,  preserved  the  channel  of  the 

[    56    1 


CAMPIDOGLIO 

stream  so  that  it  would  have  been  quite  possible  to 
hide  successfully  a  great  piece  of  statuary  in  its  depths 
or  in  some  reedy  pool  along  its  banks.  River-beds  were 
not  uncommon  hiding-places  for  treasures  during  the 
Dark  Ages  which  followed  the  breaking-up  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  this  group 
may  have  been  so  hidden  by  its  owner  whose  great 
villa,  situated  near  the  stream,  was  threatened  with 
pillage  or  destruction  by  some  barbarian  incursion. 
The  high  value  evidently  placed  upon  it  by  its  origi- 
nal possessor  was  also  given  to  it  by  its  discoverers.  It 
belonged  to  that  remote  museum  of  antiquities  kept  in 
or  near  the  Lateran  Palace  during  the  Middle  Ages 
and  dating  back  at  least  to  the  days  when  Charlemagne 
first  visited  Rome,  in  781,  bringing  with  him  his  little 
son  Pepin,  aged  four,  to  be  anointed  King  of  Italy 
by  Pope  Hadrian  I.  This  museum  contained  also  the 
equestrian  statue  of  Marcus  Aurehus,  now  standing  in 
the  centre  of  the  piazza  of  the  Campidoglio,  together 
with  the  two  river-gods,  placed  later  on  by  Michelangelo 
where  they  now  he — one  on  either  side  of  the  central 
fountain  of  the  Campidogho;  and  other  marbles  and 
bronzes  of  great  value.  Most  of  these  art  treasures  were 
removed  from  the  Lateran  to  the  Capitol  when  Pope 
Sixtus  IV  (Riario,  i47i-i484)  founded  the  Capitohne 
Museum;  but  long  before  that  time  the  Lion,  as  it  was 
always  called  (the  original  portion  of  the  horse  being 
merely  the  body),  had  been  taken  from  its  academic 
seclusion  and  set  in  the  midst  of  things.  During  three 
centuries  of  the  turbulent  life  of  mediaeval  Rome,  it 

[    57    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Stood  to  the  left  hand  and  at  the  foot  of  the  long  flight 
of  steps  which,  previous  to  Michelangelo's  time,  led  up 
£rom  the  Piazza  of  the  Ara  Coeli  to  the  Capitol.  All 
about  it  was  held  the  public  market;  the  city  officials, 
found  guilty  of  misdemeanors,  were  made  to  do  pen- 
ance sitting  astride  the  Lion's  back  with  their  hands 
tied  behind  them  and  their  faces  smeared  with  honey 
— the  Roman  version  of  the  pillory  I  The  ferocity  of 
the  Lion  was  thought  to  typify  the  pimishment  of 
crime,  and  the  pubHc  executions  were  held  before  this 
old  fragment.  Here,  on  August  3i,  i354,  the  famous 
soldier  of  fortune,  Fra  Monreale,  was  beheaded  by 
order  of  Cola  di  Rienzi.  On  October  8  of  the  same 
year,  Rienzi  himself  was  caught  as  he  was  escaping  in 
disguise  from  the  burning  palace  of  the  Capitol,  and 
here  he  stood,  during  the  last  hour  of  his  life,  leaning 
against  the  Lion,  turning  his  head  this  way  and  that 
in  vain  quest  of  succor,  while  the  mob  which  was  so 
soon  to  tear  him  to  pieces  held  back  in  a  strange  awe, 
and  a  silence  reigned  over  everything  I  That  was  the 
greatest  of  all  the  tragedies — though  there  were  so 
many  of  them — connected  with  the  Lion. 

The  old  bit  of  sculpture  continued  to  hold  its  sinister 
place  in  Roman  life,  until  the  pontificate  of  Paul  III 
(Famese,  1 534- 1 549).  A-t  that  time  Master  Michelan- 
gelo (to  use  Vasari's  phraseology) , working  for  the  Pope, 
remodelled  the  Capitol  and  decorated  it  with  many 
old  statues.  The  group  of  the  horse  and  lion  was  then 
completely,  though  poorly,  restored,  and  placed  in  the 
court  of  the  Palazzo  dei  Conservatori — this  being  the 

[    58    ] 


CAMPIDOGLIO 

first  of  the  three  buildings  of  the  Capitol  to  be  built 
after  Michelangelo's  designs.  At  the  same  time  the 
place  for  the  public  executions  was  transferred  from 
the  piazza  of  the  Ara  Cceli  to  the  Piazza  di  Ponte  Sant' 
Angelo. 

The  Lion  was  placed  in  its  present  position  in  igoS, 
and  Rome  of  the  twentieth  centmy  is  responsible  for 
the  extraordinary  taste  which  converted  into  a  foun- 
tain this  old  fragment,  highly  interesting  as  an  antiq- 
uity but  repulsive  in  itself,  and  associated  chiefly  with 
the  bloodiest  and  least  attractive  pages  in  Roman 
annals. 

It  is  impossible  to  leave  the  Campidogho  without  a 
heightened  appreciation  of  the  might  of  the  construc- 
tive imagination.  Only  that  faculty,  developed  to  its 
highest  power  as  in  Michelangelo,  could  have  produced 
this  magnificent  harmony  out  of  the  incongruous  mass 
of  classic  and  mediaeval  survivals  with  which  he  had 
to  deal. 


[  59  ] 


FARNESE 


FARNESE 

"At  the  entrance  to  this  palace  stand  two  rare  and 
vast  fountains  made  of  granite  stone  £ind  brought  from 
the  Baths  of  Titus."  Thus  wrote  John  Evelyn  in  No- 
vember, 1 644-  The  description  holds  to  this  day,  al- 
though the  modern  sight-seer  will  substitute  Caracalla 
for  Titus. 

The  fountains  were  erected  by  the  Famese  family  to 
add  the  final  touch  of  distinction  to  their  new  palace. 
They  owe  their  unique  combination  of  original  classic 
features  and  seventeenth-century  taste  to  the  genius 
and  opportunities  of  Paul  III  and  his  grandson.  Car- 
dinal Alessandro  Farnese  II,  and  to  a  still  later  de- 
scendant Cardinal  Odoardo  Farnese.  The  Pope  and  the 

[    63    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

earKer  cardinal,  men  of  wide  culture  and  enormous 
wealth,  were  the  first  to  excavate  and  exploit  the  Baths 
of  Caracalla.  The  treasm"es  they  there  found  might  well 
have  been  the  loot  of  some  fabulous  city,  and  yet  the 
pearls  and  gold  and  rubies  brought  some  twenty  years 
later  by  Francis  Drake  to  his  royal  mistress  were  of 
small  significance  compared  to  the  works  of  art  found 
in  those  great  baths — baths  which  had  been  the  most 
sumptuous  pleasure-house  of  imperial  Rome.  It  is  the 
glory  of  Italy  that  she  knew  this  at  the  time.  Her  great 
churchmen  reverently  exhumed  those  masterpieces  of 
Greek  and  Roman  art  and  made  of  them  the  Famese 
Collection — according  to  a  well-known  authority  the 
rarest  collection  ever  got  together  by  private  individ- 
uals, and  forming  to-day  the  chief  interest  in  the 
Museum  at  Naples. 

When  the  Pope,  Paul  III  (Famese),  began  the  erec- 
tion of  the  great  new  palace  which  was  to  bear  his  name 
and  fitly  domicile  the  princely  family  he  was  founding, 
he,  and  his  descendants  after  him,  used  for  its  decora- 
tion the  rare  marbles  and  minor  artistic  trophies  from 
the  baths.  No  doubt,  it  seemed  to  them  a  happy  inspi- 
ration to  turn  these  gigantic  granite  tubs  into  a  pair  of 
fountains;  for  these  notable  fountains  are,  in  the  last 
analysis,  simply  huge  bathtubs,  rendered  imposing  by 
their  size,  and  magnificent  by  the  material  out  of  which 
they  are  made.  They  are  seventeen  feet  long  and  about 
three  feet  deep,  and  are  absolutely  devoid  of  decora- 
tion except  for  the  hon's  head  carved  in  relief,  low 
down  in  the  middle  of  each  side — and  this  is  merely  an 

I    64    1 


FARNESE 

ornamental  outlet  for  the  water,  quite  as  necessary  to 
the  original  purpose  for  which  these  tubs  were  made  as 
are  the  handles  carved  high  up  on  either  side  under  the 
curved  rim,  simulating  metal  rings  through  which  the 
bronze  staves  had  been  inserted  whenever  it  was  found 
necessary  to  move  the  tubs.  Carlo  and  Girolamo  Rai- 
naldi,  who,  in  1612,  adapted  for  Cardinal  Odoardo  Far- 
nese  this  furniture  of  the  past  to  seventeenth-century 
decorative  pm-poses,  could  think  of  no  more  original 
design  than  that  of  the  well-known  ItaUan  fountain  of 
their  own  day.  They  placed  each  of  the  tubs  in  a  large, 
elegantly  curved  basin  similar  to  those  in  the  Piazza 
Navona  standing  some  two  feet  above  the  pavement. 
In  the  middle  of  each  tub  they  erected  a  sumptuous 
Italian  vase,  its  large,  swelling  stem,  richly  carved,  up- 
holding an  elaborate  shallow  bowl,  oblong  in  shape, 
out  of  which  rises  as  the  fountain's  final  consummation 
a  highly  conventional  flem'-de-hs,  the  emblem  of  the 
Famese  family.  This  is  overwrought  with  fine  stone 
traceries,  and  sends  upward  from  its  centre  convolu- 
tion a  single  slender  stream  of  water.  Additional  jets, 
of  no  artistic  value,  rise  one  on  either  side  in  each  of 
the  lower  basins.  This  modem  work  is  all  in  traver- 
tine. 

The  combination  of  the  severely  classic  lines  of  the 
baths  with  the  Gothic  carving  and  mediaeval  emblem 
of  the  fleur-de-Hs  is  not  good.  It  is  disastrous  to  the 
design  as  a  composition  and  makes  these  fountains 
archaeological  curiosities  rather  than  artistic  creations. 
Still,  the  Farnese  fountains  impose  by  their  quahties 

[    65    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

of  size  and  strength,  and  once  seen  can  never  be  for- 
gotten. 

The  pleasure  derived  from  the  sight  of  a  pair  of 
fountains  is  not  merely  double  the  pleasure  that  is  felt 
at  the  sight  of  one.  The  two  objects,  though  exactly 
similar,  create  by  their  mutual  relation  an  entirely  new 
set  of  aesthetic  emotions.  The  feeUng  for  balance  and 
composition  is  aroused,  and  this  particular  pleasure  is 
produced  in  no  small  degree  by  these  two  fountains. 
Twin  fountains  are  an  unusual  feature.  There  are  few 
of  them  in  the  world;  and  in  Rome,  whose  fountains 
are  perhaps  still  unnumbered,  there  are  but  five — the 
fountains  of  St.  Peter's,  the  side  fountains  of  the  Piazza 
del  Popolo,  the  two  end  fountains  of  the  Piazza  Na- 
vona,  Vansantio's  fountains  in  the  Villa  Borghese,  and 
these  of  the  Piazza  Farnese. 

Mr.  John  Evelyn  also  describes  in  his  journal  the 
custom  of  his  day  for  the  Roman  gentry  to  take  their 
airing  in  the  Piazza  Farnese,  driving  or  walking  before 
the  palace  and  about  the  fountains,  whose  water  gave 
to  all  the  eu-chitectural  magnificence  that  touch  of 
freshness  and  charm  essential  to  the  Roman  idea  of  a 
pleasure-ground.  That  Evelyn  was  taken  to  the  Far- 
nese Palace  the  very  first  day  of  his  sojourn  in  Rome 
is  significant.  The  Roman  of  i644  evidently  considered 
this  palace  and  its  precincts  to  be  Rome's  chief  attrac- 
tion ;  and  this  proves  that  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Paul 
V  (Borghese),  who  had  died  some  twenty  years  previ- 
ously (1621),  and  of  Urban  VIII  (Barberini),  then  just 
passing  away,  the  Farnese  pontiff,  Paul  III,  dead  for  a 

[    66    ] 


FARNESE 

century  past,  had  succeeded  in  giving  and  preserving 
to  his  family  an  importance  and  magnificence  hardly  to 
be  emulated  and  impossible  to  surpass.  The  bronze  and 
marble  tomb  of  Paul  III  is  in  St.  Peter's,  to  the  left  of 
the  tribime.  It  contains  the  dust  of  as  worldly  a  person, 
to  quote  Ranke,  as  ever  Pope  had  been.  Yet  if  his  ac- 
tions cannot  be  said  to  "  smell  sweet  and  blossom  in  the 
dust,"  his  memory  survives  in  the  annals  of  Rome, 
fragrant  with  the  love  and  pride  of  his  people.  He  was 
an  old,  old  man  when  he  died  in  i549.  He  had  been 
fifteen  years  Pope  and  forty  years  a  cardinal.  The  date 
of  his  birth  carries  the  mind  back  to  the  years  before 
Columbus.  His  education,  conducted  by  Pomponeus 
Laetus,  had  begun  in  the  full  tide  of  the  High  Renais- 
sance. In  his  early  twenties  he  became  a  member  of  the 
household  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  at  whose  table 
and  in  whose  gardens  he  had  met  the  most  briUiant 
men  of  his  time  and  had  heard  talk  that  embraced  all 
that  was  then  known  or  surmised  of  art  and  learning. 
For  Constantinople  had  fallen  to  the  Turk  only  a  gen- 
eration before  that  time,  and  what  had  survived  of 
Greek  culture,  fleeing  across  the  seas  to  Italy,  had 
found  its  chief  shelter  and  patronage  in  the  household 
of  the  great  Medici.  While  in  Florence,  young  Famese 
must  have  heard  Savonarola  preach;  but  no  trace  of 
the  great  Dominican's  influence  is  to  be  found  through- 
out his  long  Hfe.  The  classic  spirit  enthralled  his  intel- 
lect, and  the  splendor  of  the  Medici  prince  captured 
his  imagination.  In  later  years  his  careful  Latinity,  his 
splendid  and  Hberal  manner,  and  his  gay  and  witty 

[    67    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

conversation,  together  with  his  patronage  of  artists 
and  his  passion  for  the  antique,  proved  how  profoundly 
he  had  been  influenced  by  the  experiences  of  his  early 
youth.  Placed  thus  in  the  very  heart  of  a  movement 
which  freed  the  individual  from  all  limitations  save 
those  of  his  own  personaHty  and  opened  the  world  be- 
fore him,  he  early  made  up  his  mind  to  become  Pope 
and  to  raise  his  own  family,  as  the  Medici  had  done, 
to  the  rank  of  princes.  The  ambition  was  perhaps 
common,  but  the  abihty  with  which  he  pursued  these 
aims  for  upward  of  sixty  years  was  not  conmion,  and 
their  complete  achievement  was  Uttle  short  of  the 
marvellous.  It  took  him  forty  years  to  reach  St.  Peter's 
chair,  and  he  occupied  it  only  fifteen;  but  before  he 
died  one  of  his  grandsons  had  married  a  daughter  of 
Charles  V,  the  Emperor  of  Austria;  another  was  be- 
trothed to  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  France;  and 
two  more  were  cardinals  and  multimilUonaires.  Later 
on,  his  descendants  married  into  the  royal  houses  of 
Portugal  and  Spain,  and  the  Famese  family  passed 
out  of  existence  only  by  being  merged  by  marriage 
into  the  royal  house  of  the  Neapohtan  Bourbons.  One 
grandson,  Cardinal  Alessandro  Farnese  II,  was  the 
chief  art  patron  of  his  time,  and  this  in  an  age  when 
there  were  many  such  men;  and  one  great-grandson 
was  that  Duke  of  Parma  whose  fame  as  a  great  cap- 
tain is  written  in  what  were,  until  the  second  decade 
of  the  twentieth  century,  the  bloodiest  annals  of  the 
Netherlands.  To  provide  a  suitable  setting  for  this 
princely  family,  the  Pope,  some  five  years  before  his 

I    68    ] 


FARNESE 

death,  began  this  Farnese  Palace.  Antonio  da  San 
Gallo,  the  younger,  Giacomo  della  Porta,  and  Michel- 
angelo designed  its  fagades  and  cornice.  The  great 
structure  was  completed  long  after  the  Pope's  death 
by  Alessandro  Farnese  II.  It  was  recognized  at  once 
to  be  the  most  sumptuous  of  the  Roman  palaces.  It 
stands  upon  the  site  of  the  old  Palazzo  Ferriz,  which 
was  at  one  time  the  residence  of  the  Spanish  ambas- 
sador, and  had  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  Au- 
gustine monks  of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo.  The  old 
Ferriz  Palace  had  been  on  the  Tiber  bank,  for  it  was 
not  until  Juhus  IPs  time  that  the  Strada,  or  Via 
Giulia,  was  cut  through,  thus  separating  the  palace 
from  the  river.  Where  these  fountains  now  stand  as 
the  ornaments  of  a  spacious  piazza,  there  was  at  that 
time  nothing  but  a  collection  of  hovels  extending  as  far 
as  the  Campo  de'  Fiori.  The  far-sighted  young  cardinal 
— the  Farnese  were  thrifty,  for  all  their  magnificence — 
bought  the  old  palace  from  the  monks,  and  hved  there 
in  ever-increasing  splendor  under  the  successive  pon- 
tificates of  Julius  II,  Leo  X,  and  Adrian  VI. 

Finally,  under  Clement  VII,  the  great  sack  of  the 
city  caused  him  to  fly  to  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo.  As  in 
the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  forty-seven  years 
later,  only  those  Huguenot  gentlemen  survived  who 
were  kept  in  the  King's  closet,  so  during  the  horrors  of 
the  sack  only  those  cardinals  escaped  outrage  who  were 
sheltered  with  the  Pope  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo. 
Farnese  by  this  time  ranked  next  to  the  Pope  in  im- 
portance, and  he  was,  of  course,  among  these.  From  the 

[    69    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Castle  he  witnessed,  with  the  terrified  Clement,  the 
devastation  inflicted  upon  the  latter's  exquisite  plea- 
sure-house on  Monte  Mario,  an  act  of  wanton  vandal- 
ism conmiitted  by  the  Colonna  to  spite  the  Pope.  Some 
ten  years  later  Cardinal  Famese  bought  this  wrecked 
palace,  restored  it,  and  presented  it  to  his  daughter-in- 
law,  Margaret  of  Austria,  who  rested  there  on  her  tri- 
umphal wedding  procession  into  Rome.  It  is  called  after 
her  to  this  day  the  Villa  Madama. 

In  i54o,  when  the  old  Palazzo  Ferriz  was  destroyed 
to  make  room  for  the  Palazzo  Famese,  the  workmen 
came  as  usual  upon  traces  of  earUer  times.  Modem 
archaeologists  have  discovered  that  the  mosaic  pave- 
ment under  the  right  wing  of  the  palace  was  a  part  of 
the  flooring  of  the  Barracks  of  the  "Red  Squadron  of 
Charioteers."  It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  the 
new  palace  was  built  of  stone  from  the  Coliseum,  but 
its  materials  came  from  numerous  and  varied  sources. 
The  great  travertine  blocks  were  quarried  at  Tivoli; 
and  Paul  III  obtained  permission  to  demoHsh  and  use 
for  his  building  the  partly  ruined  battlemented  monas- 
tery of  St.  Lorenzo  Outside  the  WaUs.  After  this  quarry 
was  exhausted,  his  nephews  obtained  the  ruins  of 
Porto,  the  Baths  of  Caracalla,  and  what  was  still  more 
important  the  remains  of  the  greatest  temple  of  im- 
perial Rome — Aurelian's  Temple  of  the  Sun,  which,  at 
that  date  still  towered  one  hundred  feet  above  the 
Colonna  gardens. 

Contemporary  artists  sketched  these  various  struc- 
tures as  the  masons  destroyed  them,  so  that  students 

[    70    ] 


One  of  the  fountains  in  the  Piazza  Famese. 


FARNESE 

of  the  present  day  can  form  some  idea  of  their  classic 
grandem-,  and  can  judge  for  themselves  the  value  of  the 
Farnese  Palace  on  the  one  hand  and  on  the  other  that 
of  the  imperial  baths  and  temple,  and  the  medisBval 
monastery,  out  of  which  it  is  built. 

The  great  new  palace  made  necessary  the  great  new 
square  in  front  of  it;  but  years  before  this  the  Pope 
had  begun  that  regeneration  of  Rome  for  which  he  is 
so  gratefully  remembered. 

The  entry  into  Rome  of  Charles  V,  on  the  5th  of 
April,  1 534,  first  aroused  the  Romans  to  the  deplorable 
condition  of  their  city,  and,  under  the  Pope's  enlight- 
ened guidance,  the  preparations  for  the  imperial  visitor 
took  the  form  of  permanent  and  far-reaching  municipal 
improvements,  which  improvements  were  CcU'ried  on 
throughout  the  entire  period  of  Paul  Ill's  pontificate. 
The  enlarging  of  such  great  thoroughfares  as  the  Ba- 
buino  and  Condotti  date  from  this  time,  as  does  also 
the  modern  Corso,  this  last  finally  superseding  the  Via 
Giuha  as  the  fashionable  resort.  Paul  III  preferred  the 
old  Palazzo  di  Venezia  at  its  foot  to  any  other  resi- 
dence, and  he  connected  it  with  the  CampidogHo  by 
the  great  viaduct,  lately  destroyed;  whUe  for  him 
Michelangelo  designed  the  Campanile  of  the  Senate 
House.  A  great  Roman  of  the  present  day  asserts  that 
the  fifteen  years  of  Paul  Ill's  pontificate  comprise  one 
of  the  happiest  periods  in  the  city's  life. 

When  Margaret  of  Austria  rode  through  the  Porta 
del  Popolo,  "two  hours  before  sunset,  dressed  in  white 
satin  embroidered  in  pearls  and  gold,"  it  was  not 

[    73    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

merely  a  curious  crowd  who  met  and  welcomed  her. 
That  concourse  of  citizens  represented  the  self-respect 
of  the  Romans,  risen  from  the  abasement  of  a  decade, 
and  eager  to  prove  to  the  daughter  of  the  world's 
greatest  sovereign  their  worthiness  to  be  her  subjects. 
They  could  not  know  that  Margaret  felt  contempt  for 
her  youthful  husband,  nor  that  in  the  long  duel  be- 
tween Paul  III  and  the  Emperor  of  Austria  she  stood 
not  for  Rome  but  for  Austria,  saying  once  when  her 
assistance  was  sought  that  she  had  rather  cut  off  her 
children's  heads  than  ask  her  father  to  do  anything 
that  displeased  him !  These  were  matters  for  the  Far- 
nese  to  deal  with.  So  far  as  Rome  was  concerned,  with 
the  entry  of  the  Emperor's  daughter,  its  place  among 
the  cities  of  the  world  became  once  more  important  and 
imposing. 

Charles  V  might  despise  the  upstart  Famese  as 
Francis  I  had  laughed  at  Cesare  Borgia,  but  the  self- 
made  Itahans  of  the  Renaissance — churchmen,  mer- 
chants, and  condottieri,  were  forces  which  hereditary 
monarchy  could  not  do  without.  Spain  had  the  riches 
of  the  New  World;  France  and  England  were  breeding 
the  manhood  of  Europe;  but  Italy  held  the  keys  to  the 
past — to  the  culture  for  which  men's  souls  longed.  The 
time  was  not  yet — in  i54o — although  it  was  close  at 
hand,  when  Italy's  dehberate  choice  of  evil  rather  than 
good  finally  made  her,  by  weakening  and  corrupting 
her,  a  captive  to  Spain.  Time  was  not  yet;  and  in  that 
last  lingering  glow  of  her  greatness  and  freedom  the  old 
Pope,  Paul  III,  moves  as  her  incarnate  spirit.  To  a  fig- 

[    74    ] 


FARNESE 

ure  sKght  and  stately,  though  with  stooping  shoulders, 
was  united  a  shrewd  and  kindly  countenance,  with  a 
massive  nose  and  flowing  beard,  mobile  Ups  and  pierc- 
ing eyes.  His  voice  was  modulated,  and  his  manner 
gracious  and  noble.  This  outer  man  held  guard  over  a 
mind  so  crafty  and  tenacious,  so  secretive  and  resource- 
ful, that  to  the  Venetian  ambassador — ever  the  most 
astute  observer — he  remained  a  fascinating  and  baf- 
fling enigma;  while  for  Cardinal  Mendoza  and  the  Em- 
peror he  was  an  antagonist  whom,  for  all  their  secret 
Austrian  contempt  and  bitter  hatred,  they  could  not 
afi'ord  to  ignore. 

It  was  remarked  that  the  Pope  never  wished  to  hear 
or  to  speak  of  his  predecessor.  He  felt  that  the  election 
of  Clement  VH  had  robbed  him  of  fourteen  years  of 
the  papacy.  Posterity  may  weU  share  his  prejudice,  for 
it  seems  safe  to  assume  that,  had  Paul  HI  been  Pope  in 
i527,  Bourbon's  soldiers  would  never  have  got  within 
sight  of  the  city  walls;  there  would  have  been,  in  fact, 
no  sack  of  Rome.  The  Pope  felt  with  aU  the  force  of  his 
Itahan  nature  the  danger  to  Italy  from  the  side  of 
Spain.  Better  patriot  than  priest,  he  had  made  secret 
treaties  with  the  Protestants  as  a  weapon  against  the 
Spaniard;  and  while  no  one  realized  more  keenly  than 
he  the  necessity  of  reforms  in  the  Chm-ch,  yet  he 
dreaded  them  lest  they  might  in  any  way  weaken  the 
strength  of  the  papacy.  His  singular  abihty  to  unite 
the  fortunes  of  his  family  with  profitable  pohtical  un- 
dertakings runs  throughout  his  long  fife;  but  this  nep- 
otism, which  no  pope  ever  carried  further,  and  for 

[    75    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

which  he  has  been  unsparingly  censured  by  historians, 
represents  the  kindHest  strain  in  his  nature.  It  was  the 
human  side;  and  it  was  the  direct  cause  of  his  death. 
In  a  dispute  over  retaining  the  Duchy  of  Parma  in  his 
family,  the  Pope's  grandson,  Octavius,  opposed  the  old 
pontiff.  Paul  felt  this  ingratitude  deeply,  and  spoke 
openly  about  it  to  the  Venetian  ambassador.  The  day 
after  All  Saints'  Day,  i549,  the  old  man  repaired  to  his 
villa  on  Monte  Cavallo  "to  ease  his  mind,"  and  from 
there  he  sent  for  Alessandro  Farnese  II.  He  came,  this 
magnificent  young  cardinal,  handsome,  courtly,  the 
great  art  patron,  the  lover  of  scholars  and  poets,  the 
finest  flower  of  the  Famese,  a  grandson  and  namesake 
of  whom  Paul  III  was  justly  proud.  The  cardinal  was 
the  Pope's  darling,  and  from  him  Paul  felt  he  could 
expect  support  and  sympathy.  The  interview,  however, 
soon  became  stormy.  High  words  passed.  The  Pope 
flew  into  a  rage  and  snatched  the  biretta  from  the  car- 
dinal's head.  He  had  discovered  that  Alessandro  also 
was  carrying  on  a  secret  counterplot  against  him,  and 
the  discovery  broke  the  old  man's  heart.  Such  a  violent 
attack  of  anger  at  the  age  of  eighty- three  brought  on  an 
illness  from  which  he  had  neither  the  strength  nor  the 
wish  to  recover,  and  in  a  week's  time  Paul  III  w£is 
dead.  Even  after  his  death  the  Romans  loved  him — a 
rare  tribute  to  any  pope — and  aU  Rome  went  to  kiss 
his  feet.  He  had  been  the  first  Roman  to  occupy  St. 
Peter's  chair  in  over  one  hundred  years,  and  the  Ro- 
mans felt  his  virtues  and  his  failings  to  be  their  own. 
Fifteen  years  before,  they  had  carried  him  on  their 

[    76    1 


FARNESE 

shoulders  into  old  St.  Peter's  for  his  coronation,  and 
now  they  buried  him  there.  His  tomb  cost  twenty-four 
thousand  Roman  crowns,  and  is  the  masterpiece  of 
Gughelmo  della  Porta.  The  two  recumbent  statues 
upon  it  are  said  to  be  after  a  sketch  by  Michelangelo. 
The  connection  of  Michelangelo's  name  with  the  tomb 
is  interesting,  but  of  greater  interest  is  the  romantic 
legend  which  surrounds  the  statue  of  the  younger 
woman.  This  figure,  once  called  Truth  and  now  known 
to  be  Justice,  is  said  to  be  the  portrait  of  Paul  Ill's 
sister,  and  this  recalls  the  fact  that  the  fortunes  of  the 
princely  family  of  the  Farnese  rest  upon  no  more  hon- 
orable basis  than  the  passion  of  Alexander  VI  (Bor- 
gia) for  this  sister,  the  beautiful  Giulia  Farnese.  No 
one  can  study  the  statue  on  the  tomb  without  under- 
standing how  it  was  that  this  magnificent  creature 
seemed  to  the  men  of  her  time  the  flesh-and-blood  pre- 
sentment of  those  Pagan  goddesses  whom  they  all,  se- 
cretly or  openly,  worshipped.  The  superb  body  is  now 
concealed  by  Bernini's  hideous  leaden  draperies,  but 
the  carelessly  waving  hair  and  tiny  ear  have  witchery 
even  in  the  marble,  while  the  face  possesses  that  solem- 
nity of  perfect  beauty  found  only  in  the  masterpieces 
of  the  Greeks.  Never  before  or  since  was  such  a  price 
paid  for  the  Red  Hat !  Alexander  VI  made  the  young 
brother,  Alessandro  Farnese,  aged  twenty-five,  a  car- 
dinal, and  Giulia  Farnese  went  to  reign  in  those  Borgia 
apartments,  decorated  by  aU  the  genius  of  Pinturic- 
chio,  and  at  once  the  pride  and  disgrace  of  the  Vatican. 
The  young  cardinal  was  nicknamed  the  Petticoat  Car- 

[    77    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

dinal;  but  he  seems  to  have  felt  no  compunction  at  the 
transaction.  With  the  Romans,  as  with  the  Parisians, 
ridicule  is  the  most  powerful  engine  of  destruction; 
and  the  fact  that  Alessandro  Farnese  Uved  this  sobri- 
quet down,  proves,  as  nothing  else  can  prove,  the  hold 
he  had  upon  the  Roman  people. 

Any  account  of  Paul  III  would  be  incomplete  with- 
out some  reference  to  his  extraordinary  belief  in  astrol- 
ogy. It  was  quite  a  recognized  fact  that  he  never  even 
considered  any  scheme,  public  or  private,  before  con- 
sulting the  planets.  If  the  heavenly  bodies  were  not  in 
favorable  conjunction,  the  enterprise  was  given  up,  or 
as  neariy  given  up  as  was  possible  to  so  obstinate  and 
tenacious  a  mind.  In  his  own  time  this  singular  char- 
acteristic was  felt  to  be  incongruous  and  rather  dis- 
graceful; but  it  is  easy  for  the  modem  spirit  to  under- 
stand, and  even  condone,  the  weakness.  Surely,  it  was 
not  strange  that  such  a  man,  with  such  a  life,  should 
feel  that  "the  stars  in  their  courses  fought"  for  him. 

The  impression  made  upon  the  mind  by  the  Farnese 
fountains  is  not  pleasing.  They  are  certainly  "rare  and 
vast,"  but  as  fountains  they  are  not  a  success.  The 
form  overshadows  the  substance;  for  the  single  jet  of 
water  thrown  upward  over  the  structural  part  of  the 
fountain  is  not  adequate,  and  is  lost  in  the  effect  pro- 
duced upon  the  eye  by  the  huge  tubs  turned  black  by 
the  deposits  of  the  Acqua  Paola ;  while  the  water  falling 
back  into  these  receptacles  is  caught  as  in  a  prison,  the 
overflow  from  the  upper  to  the  lower  basins  being  not 
sufficient  to  give  an  idea  of  a  copious  stream.  The  mon- 

[    78    ] 


FARNESE 

ster  granite  baths  have  a  sepulchral  effect.  They  seem 
more  like  cofifins  made  to  hold  the  bones  of  departed 
heroes  than  like  basins  for  receiving  and  distributing 
Hving  water.  During  more  than  two  centuries  these 
fountains  bore  witness  to  the  magnificence  of  the  Far- 
nese  family ;  but  as  that  magnificence  had  been  sought 
and  held  for  reasons  as  purely  personal  and  selfish  as 
men  have  ever  known,  it  had  no  real  value  or  signifi- 
cance for  the  world.  No  memories  of  patriotism  or 
ghost  of  romance  hangs  over  these  fountains,  or  over 
the  palace  which  they  guard.  The  family  and  the  splen- 
dor once  were,  and  now  are  not;  and  all  the  sunshine 
which  daily  floods  the  spacious  piazza  fails  to  reani- 
mate the  majestic  vacancy  of  the  fagade,  or  to  lift  the 
gloom  from  the  dejected  and  sombre  fountains. 


[    79    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 


VILLA    GIULIA 

I.      FONTANA   PUBBLICA   DI   GIULIO   III 

"In  Xanadu  did  Kubia  Khan  a  stately  pleasure  dome  decree. 

So  twice  five  miles  of  fertile  ground  with  walls  and  towers  were 
girdled  round. 

And  there  were  gardens  bright  with  sinuous  rills,  where  blossomed 
many  an  incense-bearing  tree, 

It  was  a  miracle  of  rare  device, 

A  sunny  pleasure  dome  with  caves  of  ice.  .  .  ." 

The  Villa  Giulia  is  the  Italian  version  of  "Kubla 
Khan,"  not  built  by  "lofty  rhyme,"  but  constructed 
of  actual  stone  and  marble  for  a  pleasure-loving  pontiff 
of  the  Cinque  Cento.  The  desire  to  reahze  the  poet's 
vision  is  often  felt  by  absolute  monarchs.  Versailles, 
San  Souci,  and  the  Hermitage  show  what  unhmited 

[    83    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OP  PAPAL  ROME 

power,  wealth,  and  caprice  have  accomplished  in  that 
direction;  but  none  of  the  northern  sovereigns  pos- 
sessed either  the  climate,  soil,  historical,  poetic,  and 
pictorial  setting  or  the  artists,  architects,  and  mar- 
vellous art  treasures  which  were  at  the  command  of 
Pope  Juhus  III. 

When  this  pontiff,  whose  election  dates  from  i55o, 
decided  to  build  a  pleasure-house  upon  the  vineyard  in 
the  Via  Flaminia,  which  he  had  inherited  from  his 
uncle,  the  elder  Cardinal  Monte,  he  bought  up  adjoining 
property  from  various  landowners,  so  that  his  domain 
finally  extended  from  the  Tiber  eastward  up  the  Valle 
GiuUa  and  adjoining  slopes  of  Monte  Parioh.  The 
southern  boundaries  have  not  yet  been  fully  deter- 
mined, but  those  to  the  north  extended  as  far  as  the 
Chapel  of  St.  Andrea,  a  beautiful  Uttle  building  erected 
by  Vignola  to  commemorate  Pope  Julius's  (then  Car- 
dinal Monte)  deUverance  from  the  soldiery  at  the  time 
of  the  sack  of  Rome  in  1527.  The  Via  Flaminia  was  at 
that  time  the  fashionable  drive.  It  was  Uned  by  fine 
villas  and  palaces,  and  Amannati  alludes  to  it  as  the 
"beautiful  Via  Flaminia."  The  approach  to  it  was 
from  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  then  a  place  of  gardens, 
through  the  fine  Porta  del  Popolo  which,  begun  so  long 
before  under  Pope  Sixtus  IV,  had  just  been  finished  by 
Michelangelo  and  Vignola.  The  fine  avenue  extended 
as  far  as  the  Ponte  Molle,  where  it  crossed  the  Tiber, 
and,  after  skirting  the  western  slopes  of  Monte  Soracte, 
began  its  long  march  to  the  north.  A  httle  road  (called 
the  Via  del  Arco  Oscuro)  leading  up  from  the  Tiber 

[   84    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 

crossed  the  Via  Flaminia  at  right  angles  and  climbed 
up  the  Valle  Giulia,  turning  abruptly  toward  the 
northern  spur  of  Monte  Parioh.  The  original  Monte 
property  lay  along  this  Uttle  road;  and  it  was  at  the 
head  of  this  thoroughfare,  where  it  turned  sharply  to 
the  north  and  therefore  at  some  distance  from  the  Via 
Flaminia  and  on  much  higher  ground,  that  Pope  Julius 
decided  to  build  his  villa.  Its  creation  quickly  became 
the  absorbing  passion  of  his  hfe.  The  greatest  archi- 
tects of  the  time  were  employed  upon  it  and  no  ex- 
pense was  spared.  After  Pope  Juhus's  death,  the  entire 
place  was  confiscated  by  the  Camera  ApostoHca  for 
thirty-seven  thousand  scudi,  the  estimated  amount  of 
Pope  Julius's  debts. 

The  Monte  Pope  (Julius  III  belonged  to  the  Roman 
family  of  Monte)  would  leave  the  Vatican  by  the  pas- 
sage leading  to  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  take  there  a 
magnificent  barge  and  be  rowed  up  the  great  sweep  of 
the  Tiber  to  the  landing-place  at  the  foot  of  the  Arco 
Oscuro.  Here  a  fine  flight  of  steps  was  constructed 
leading  up  to  a  vaulted  pergola  which  traversed  the 
fields  between  the  Tiber  and  the  Via  Flaminia.  The 
pergola  was  a  bower  of  verdure  and  terminated  in  a  fine 
building  and  gateway  bordering  the  Tiber  side  of  the 
Via  Flaminia.  Here  it  was  necessary  to  cross  the  great 
highway  in  order  to  begin  the  ascent  of  the  Arco  Os- 
curo, which  led  directly  to  his  new  villa.  The  highway 
was  dusty,  and  the  saliia  or  ascent  long  and  steep,  and 
the  Pope  decided  to  create  a  resting-place  at  this  point. 
He  had  begun  digging  for  water  very  early,  while  cul- 

[    85    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

tivating  his  vineyard,  "without  ever  having  had  the 
shghtest  indication  that  water  could  be  found  there." 
Eventually  he  accomplished  his  purpose,  for  he  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  to  his  vineyard  the  leakage  waters 
of  the  Virgo  Aqueduct.  The  "leakage"  was  very  much 
in  the  nature  of  a  tap,  and  the  proceeding  was  high- 
handed and  reprehensible  to  a  degree.  In  imperial  days 
such  tampering  with  the  aqueducts  was  visited  by  pun- 
ishment which  Frontinus  considered  not  too  severe  for 
so  great  a  crime  against  the  pubhc  welfare. 

Juhus  Ill's  pontificate  lasted  only  five  years;  but  in 
the  year  following  his  death  the  Virgo  Aqueduct  had 
already  ceased  to  supply  the  city,  and  his  successors, 
Pius  IV,  Pius  V,  and  Gregory  XIII,  were  obUged  to 
begin  and  carry  on  a  systematic  and  thorough  restora- 
tion and  enlargement  of  the  aqueduct.  For  Julius  III 
the  wonderful  water  was  only  a  perquisite  belonging  to 
the  "good  gift  of  the  papacy,"  and  he  devoted  his 
short  pontificate  to  its  exploitation  and  adornment, 
possibly  silencing  his  scruples  by  the  thought  that  the 
construction  of  a  public  fountain  on  this  highway  jus- 
tified his  manner  of  obtaining  the  water.  At  the  two 
opposite  angles  of  the  Via  Flaminia  and  the  Arco  Os- 
curo,  where  the  ascent  toward  his  villa  began,  he 
erected  two  fountains,  blunting  the  acute  end  of  each 
angle  by  a  mostra  or  high  facade  from  the  base  of  which 
issued  the  water.  The  fountain  on  the  right-hand  side 
was  a  drinking-trough  for  horses,  while  that  on  the  left 
was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  interesting  foun- 
tains in  all  Rome.  It  was  the  work  of  Bartolomeo 

I    86    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 

Amannati,  possibly  assisted  by  Vignola;  and  very  often 
must  the  youthful  Domenico  Fontana  have  studied  it, 
for  the  famous  "Fontana  Fountain"  is  only  a  modifi- 
cation of  this  truly  beautiful  work  of  the  dying  Renais- 
sance. It  is  noticeable  that  Amannati's  fountain  is  not 
a  screen  nor  a  gateway;  its  mostra  stands  against  a 
solid  background  with  severely  plain  wings  of  the  same 
height  flanking  it  at  an  angle  on  either  side.  This  mos- 
tra is  of  peperino  in  the  Corinthian  order,  the  columns 
supporting  a  fine  classic  entablature  and  pediment. 
The  apex  of  the  pediment  was  surmounted  by  a  co- 
lossal statue  of  Neptune,  and  the  corners  of  it  ter- 
minated in  two  pedestals  carrying,  the  one  a  Minerva, 
and  the  other  a  Rome.  Between  these  two  figures  and 
the  Neptune  were  two  minor  pedestals  marking  the 
architectural  termination  of  the  great  central  divi- 
sion of  the  fountain,  and  on  these  stood  two  small 
obehsks,  a  feature  borrowed  by  Fontana  for  his  foun- 
tain of  the  Moses.  The  arch  of  the  central  division 
held  between  its  Corinthian  pillars  the  huge  square 
slab  with  the  inscription: 

JULIUS    III    PONT.    MAX.    PUBLICiE 
COMMODITATI    ANNO    III 

The  niches  on  either  side  of  this  slab  once  contained 
statues,  one  of  Happiness  and  the  other  of  Abundance, 
a  design  embodied  two  hundred  years  later  in  the  back- 
ground of  the  Fountain  of  Trevi.  The  basin  for  receiv- 
ing the  water  did  not  extend  across  the  full  width  of 
the  mostra,  but  was,  and  is  (for  this  still  remains),  a 

[    87    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

noble  white  granite  conca  standing  at  the  foot  of  the 
central  division  under  the  inscription.  It  originally  re- 
ceived the  water  from  a  beautiful  antique  head  of 
Apollo.  All  this  is  described  in  a  letter  written  by  the 
architect  himself,  Amannati,  from  Rome  in  i555,  and 
there  follows  a  description  of  the  arcade  behind  the 
fountain.  This  consists  of  three  loggias  with  Corinthian 
columns,  making  a  semihexagonal  design  and  carry- 
ing a  vaulted  roof  ornamented  by  pictures  and  exqui- 
site stucco  work.  This  was  where  "his  Hohness  got  re- 
pose without  incommoding  the  pubUc,"  which,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  wall,  refreshed  itself  and  its  beasts  of 
burden  from  the  public  fountain.  The  columns  were 
joined  together  by  a  balustrade,  and  the  three-sided 
colonnade  held  in  its  embrace  a  large  fish-pond  with 
various  jets  d'eau.  Beyond  this  architectural  loveliness 
stretched  long  walks  bordered  with  fruit-trees  and  es- 
paliers, and  up  these  paths  the  Pope  walked  when,  re- 
freshed after  his  long  journey  from  the  Vatican,  and 
eager  to  see  what  his  workmen  had  concluded  over 
night,  he  finally  decided  to  go  on  to  the  villa  on  the 
hill.  This  beautiful  fountEiin  and  its  loggias  have  suf- 
fered more  than  customary  outrage  from  time,  neglect, 
and  stupidity.  There  would  seem  to  be  no  vile  use  to 
which  the  loggias  have  not  been  put;  and  the  superim- 
position  of  the  Casino  of  Pope  Pius  IV,  which  is  now 
recognized  to  be  the  work  of  Piero  Ligorio,  has  entirely 
altered  the  proportions  and  beauty  of  the  public  foun- 
tain. The  fate  of  Pope  Julius's  creation,  from  the  time 
of  his  death  until  1900,  is  poorly  outUned  in  the  vari- 

I    88    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 

ous  half-obliterated  escutcheons  and  inscriptions  which 
now  ornament  the  fountain  and  its  superstructural 
Casino.  As  the  villa  and  all  the  land  about  it  had  been 
immediately  sequestered  by  the  Apostolic  Chamber  in 
spite  of  the  protests  of  Juhus  Ill's  legal  heirs  before  a 
tardy  compensation  was  awarded  them,  this  portion  of 
the  Monte  property  was  divided  by  Pope  Pius  IV  be- 
tween a  son  of  the  Duke  of  Tuscany  "who  was  to  have 
the  usufruct  for  his  lifetime  "and  his  own  two  nephews, 
Carlo  and  Federigo  Borromeo.  A  sister  of  these  Borro- 
meo  brothers  married  a  Colonna,  and  the  property  was 
bestowed  upon  her  as  dowry.  It  remained  in  that  fam- 
ily until  1900,  when  it  was  purchased  by  the  present 
owner,  CavaUere  Giuseppe  Balestra,  who  already 
owned  the  adjoining  villa  on  the  high  ground,  which 
might  have  been  a  part  of  the  original  Villa  GiuHa, 
since  it  corresponds  to  that  land  which  Juhus  III 
had  acquired  from  Cardinal  Poggio  and  Cardinal  San 
Vitelleschi.  The  Medici  escutcheon  may  have  been 
placed  there  either  by  the  Duke  of  Tuscany  or  by 
Pius  IV.  The  Pope  was  of  very  humble  Milanese  origin 
and  had  no  connection  whatever  with  the  great  family 
whose  name  he  happened  to  have;  but  after  he  became 
Pope,  the  Duke  Cosimo  I,  who  found  it  to  his  interest 
to  have  the  Pope  on  his  side,  permitted  him  to  use  the 
escutcheon.  Contrary  to  the  decent  Roman  custom,* 
the  original  inscription  of  Juhus  III  was  removed  in 

*  Sixtus  V  was  severely  criticised  for  substituting  his  own  arms  for 
those  of  his  predecessor,  Gregory  XIII,  in  the  Quirinal  Palace,  and 
after  Sixtus's  death  the  Boncompagni  arms  were  restored  to  their 
original  place. 

[     89     ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century,  by  that 
one  of  the  Colonna  who  inherited  the  property  after 
the  death  of  the  last  descendant  of  the  earher  branch. 
He  placed  his  own,  the  present,  inscription  in  place  of 
it,  sparing  the  inscription  to  Carlo  Borromeo,  either 
because  of  Borromeo's  connection  with  the  Colonna 
family  or  because  of  the  great  veneration  felt  by  every- 
one for  the  memory  of  the  sainted  young  cardinal.  It 
was  also  at  this  time  that  the  beautiful  antique  head  of 
Apollo  was  replaced  by  the  Colonna  escutcheon  and 
the  sculptured  trophies.  The  inscription  on  the  small 
tablet  under  the  spring  of  the  arch  relates  that  in  1760 
Pope  Benedict  XIV  gave  to  the  Colonna  family  the 
right  to  draw  "two  ounces"  of  water  daily  from  the 
receiving-tank  of  the  Trevi  Fountain  for  use  in  their 
Roman  palace  as  a  recompense  to  them  for  their  gift 
to  the  pubUc  of  the  Trevi  Water  in  this  old  fountain.* 
Those  who  visit  the  Villa  Giuha  in  the  morning 
hours  may  see  the  Campagna  carts  on  their  way  back 
from  Rome  drawn  up  before  the  public  fountain  of 
Pope  JuUus  III,  and  the  sleepy  drivers,  tired  horses, 
and  responsible  Uttle  dogs  refreshing  themselves  with 
the  water. 

*  "Ounce"  was  a  mediaeval  measurement  of  running  water,  of  which 
there  were  once  as  many  varieties  in  Italy  as  there  were  provinces. 
Some  of  these  are  still  in  use.  The  Roman  oncia  d'acqua,  or  ounce  of 
water,  was  practically  equivalent  to  four  times  the  (juantity  of  water 
known  as  the  California  "miner's  inch."  This  "miner's  inch"  Eunounts 
to  something  like  sixteen  thousand  gallons  in  twenty-four  hours,  and 
therefore  the  grant  of  two  Roman  "ounces"  gave  the  Colonna  the 
right  to  draw  from  the  Fountain  of  Trevi  eight  times  that  amount,  or 
one  hundred  smd  twenty-eight  thousand  gallons  every  twenty-four 
hours. 

[     90     ] 


Fountain  of  the  Virgins. 


VILLA    GIULIA 

So  far  the  picture  created  more  than  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago  remains  the  same;  fundamental  cus- 
toms do  not  change  in  Rome.  But  on  the  other  side  of 
the  wall,  where  once  sat  and  talked  the  joyous  Pope 
and  his  company,  what  ruin  and  desolation !  Some  day 
the  ItaUan  Government  will  sweep  the  crumbhng  log- 
gias free  from  dust  and  rubbish  and  tear  away  the  pro- 
tecting foliage,  not  redeeming  but  unmasking  the  dese- 
cration of  the  centuries.  To-day  the  dark  water  in  the 
rough  garden  tanks,  the  unpruned  trees  and  wild 
flowers,  the  old  mule  stabled  under  the  ruined  loggias 
where  hay  is  stored,  the  mysterious  gloom  of  the 
vaulted  roof  above  the  Corinthian  capitals  and  every- 
where black  shadows  of  impenetrable  depth  make  up  a 
scene  whose  like  can  in  aU  probabiUty  be  found  only 
among  the  engravings  of  Piranesi. 


II.      THE    NYMPILEUM    OR   " SECRET    FOUNTAIN" 

The  Villa  Giuha  proper  is  designated  in  the  old  Ital- 
ian books  as  ITnvenzione  nella  Vigna  Giuha,  and  the 
hteral  Enghsh  translation  of  invention  not  inappropri- 

[    93    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

ately  describes  this  truly  marvellous  creation.  Aman- 
nati,  Vasari,  Vignola,*  and  even  the  aged  Michelan- 
gelo spent  themselves  upon  the  architectural  devices 
by  which  this  pleasure-house  became  a  place  of  almost 
fabulous  beauty.  Consummate  knowledge  of  perspec- 
tive was  employed  in  making  the  building,  which  is  not 
at  all  large,  seem  so,  and  the  only  defect  in  the  entire 
design  is,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  Pope's 
fault,  for  Julius  insisted  upon  working  into  the  loggias 
in  the  rear  of  the  upper  court  of  the  foimtain  a  gift  of 
columns,  beautiful  in  themselves  but  too  small  for  the 
surrounding  proportions,  thus  making  that  part  of 
the  construction  appear  insignificant  and  inferior  to 
the  rest.  The  Pope's  changing  caprice  wearied  even  the 
good-natured  Vasari,  who  has  left  the  record  that 
"there  was  no  getting  the  viUa  done";  and  it  was 
not  long  before  Vignola,  a  man  of  genuine  and  inde- 
pendent genius,  wearied  utterly  of  serving  such  a  mas- 
ter and  went  off  with  the  great  Cardinal  Farnese  to 
build  the  latter's  villa  of  Caprarola,  where  he  could 
work  at  peace  and  for  an  appreciative  and  sympa- 
thetic patron. 

The  last  remains  of  Aurelian's  Temple  of  the  Sun 
were  presented  by  Prince  Colonna  to  the  Pope  and 

*  One  of  Vignola's  early  plans  for  the  Villa  Giulia  has  lately  come 
to  light.  It  shows  the  main  structure  much  as  it  is,  but  with  a  large 
wing  to  left  and  right,  and  a  long  garden  running  down  either  side  of 
the  central  court  behind  each  wing.  There  are  also  other  differentia- 
tions, and  it  is  evident  the  plan  must  have  entailed  a  larger  tmd  more 
expensive  building  than  that  which  was  finally  erected.  The  plan 
measures  four  by  five  feet  and  is  beautifully  prepared.  It  is  now  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Lawrence  Grant  White,  of  New  York. 

[   94    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 

went  into  the  fabric  of  the  villa,  and  a  great  collection 
of  portrait  busts  of  the  Emperors,  found  in  the  villa  of 
Hadrian,  helped  to  adorn  the  loggias  and  niches.  The 
villa  was  filled  with  rare  marbles,  tables,  statues,  and 
vases,  and  the  mgirble  colunms  of  the  central  loggia 
were  so  lustrous  that  Amannati  says  they  mirrored 
every  one  who  entered  there.  As  the  villa  is  constructed 
on  the  hillside,  various  levels  are  the  natural  result, 
and  this  feature  has  been  used  with  diverse  and  happy 
effects.  The  various  coiu-ts  are  all  on  different  planes 
while,  with  the  one  exception  of  the  grand  double 
stairway  in  the  central  court,  all  the  stairs  are  cun- 
ningly concealed  so  that  there  is  no  suggestion  of 
physical  effort  as  the  eye  passes  from  one  plane  to 
another.  The  vaulted  roofs  of  the  long  semicircular 
galleries  and  various  rooms  were  decorated  with  paint- 
ings or  with  stucco  work  of  the  most  exquisite  per- 
fection. Traces  of  this  last  are  still  to  be  seen  above 
the  niches  containing  the  colossal  river-gods,  the  Tiber 
and  the  Arno  (Amannati  was  a  Florentine).  The  place 
was  truly  a  Palace  of  Art.  Nothing  but  beauty  was 
permitted  to  enter  it.  Stables,  offices,  and  kitchens 
were  placed  outside  the  villa,  and  the  one  house  which 
stood  within  the  villa  grounds — that  of  the  keeper  or 
custodian — was  designed  and  decorated  with  great 
care,  so  that,  according  to  Amannati,  the  entire  inven- 
tion was  of  such  beauty  that  it  was  in  itseff  "good 
enough  for  any  great  prince."  Nothing  remains  of 
this  splendor  but  the  bare  shell,  and  this  has  been  so 
tampered  with  that  it  is  only  from  old  plans  or  from 

[    95    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

outlines  of  restoration  by  Letarouilly  and  Stem  that 
a  true  conception  can  be  obtained  of  the  villa  of 
Pope  Juhus  III.  It  is  necessary  to  know,  for  instance, 
that  the  front  court,  now  a  commonplace  garden,  was 
originally  a  great  paved  cortile  filled  with  statuary 
now  in  the  Vatican  or  scattered  far  and  wide  over 
Italy.  The  loggia  leading  up  and  out  of  this  court  was 
originally  closed  and  entered  by  doors.  The  shallow, 
broad  stairway  leading  down  from  the  right-hand 
garden  under  the  terraces  was  put  in  for  the  benefit 
of  the  cavalry  quartered  there  during  a  petty  war  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  horses  were  taken 
down  to  drink  at  the  Nymphseum  I  The  present  gar- 
dens in  no  wise  represent  the  beautiful  formal  gardens 
which  stretched  there  on  either  side  of  the  various 
courts,  and  the  present  walls  cannot  possibly  enclose 
that  space  which  was  once  filled  with  orange  groves 
and  every  sort  of  device  for  fastidious  dehght.  Some- 
where in  those  grounds,  probably  on  the  right  hand, 
there  was  a  monticello  or  httle  hill  from  which  could 
be  seen  the  Tiber,  the  Seven  Hills,  the  "beautiful 
Strada  Flaminia,"  the  Vatican,  and  the  vast  erection 
of  new  St.  Peter's  overtopping  and  gradually  engulfing 
the  old  basihca,  the  view  extending  even  to  the  sea. 
Under  the  high  ground  still  held  in  place  by  a  great 
retaining  wall  were  grottos  beautifully  decorated  by 
stucco  and  painting  and  icy  cold  even  in  sunmier.  In 
the  woods,  where  the  Italian  pastime  of  snaring  birds 
was  carefully  provided  for,  there  were  accommoda- 
tions for  every  kind  of  animal,  and  everywhere  there 

[    96    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 

were  fountains,  marble  seats,  and  antique  garden 
statuary. 

Louis  XIV,  for  whom  careful  plans  of  the  villa  were 
drawn,  wisely  made  no  attempt  to  copy  the  enchanted 
palace  of  Italy.  Versailles  makes  up  in  size  for  the 
beauty  of  color,  architecture,  vegetation,  and  art  trea- 
sures here  formed  into  one  beautiful  whole  by  Pope 
Julius  III.  The  shape  of  the  Villa  Giulia  is  significant. 
It  is  a  series  of  gardens,  loggias,  and  courts,  one  en- 
closing the  other,  each  richer  in  ornamentation,  more 
ravishing  in  beauty  than  the  last,  until  finally  the 
heart  of  the  creation  is  reached,  and  the  "secret  foun- 
tain "  of  the  Acqua  Vergine  is  discovered  flowing  out 
of  the  shadow  and  from  a  hidden  source  into  a  sunUt 
Nymphaeum  of  marvellous  beauty  and  again  mysteri- 
ously disappearing  into  the  shadow.  The  Fountain  of 
the  Virgins,  as  it  came  to  be  called,  was  felt  by  its 
creator,  Amannati,  to  be  beyond  the  power  of  descrip- 
tion. Writing  to  a  friend  in  Padua,  soon  after  Pope 
Juhus's  death,  he  describes  the  entire  villa  in  ex- 
traordinary detail,  noting  the  attitude  even  of  many  of 
the  statues;  but  when,  after  pages  of  description,  he 
has  brought  his  reader  to  the  lowest  court  of  all,  his 
pen  fails  him  and  he  says  that  unless  he  can  paint  a 
picture  of  this  court  and  fountain  he  will  never  be 
able  to  give  his  friend  "any  conception  of  this,  the 
lovehest,  richest,  and  most  marvellous  place  in  the 
entire  creation."  Amannati  saw  it  in  its  first  splen- 
dor. The  caryatides  were  perfect,  white,  and  gleam- 
ing, and  perhaps  beautiful.  The  niches  round  about 

[    97    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

were  filled  with  marble  boys  carrying  urns  upon  their 
shoulders  from  which  the  water  was  poured  into  the 
semicircular  stream  at  their  feet.  It  is  impossible  to 
tell  from  the  description  of  the  old  pictures  what,  if 
any,  statue  filled  the  central  niche  behind  the  virgins. 
At  present  the  niche  holds  a  great  white  marble  swan, 
now  almost  hidden  by  fern,  from  whose  bill  the  water 
trickles  into  the  black  pool  beneath.  The  pavement, 
made  of  every  conceivable  kind  of  marble,  glowed  like 
a  jewel.  The  balustrade  above  held  graceful  statues 
and  on  either  side  of  the  court  just  above  stood  a  great 
plane-tree,  giving  dehcious  verdure  and  shade.  Then, 
as  now,  the  water  came  from  large  reservoirs  hidden 
beneath  the  upper  terrace  to  the  east  of  the  fountain; 
then,  as  now,  it  was  carried  off  over  gentle,  rough- 
paved  inclines;  then,  as  now,  it  fell  steeply  into  a  sub- 
terranean cavern — the  entire  construction  producing 
waves  of  cool  air  and  a  ripple  and  murmur  of  water 
exquisitely  refreshing  to  both  eye  and  ear.  It  is  almost 
necessary  to  forgive  Pope  JuHus  his  attack  upon  the 
aqueduct.  Never  before  or  since  has  the  Acqua  Vergine 
received  such  poetic  treatment. 

Nothing  remains  of  this  beauty  but  the  water  and 
the  masonry.  Pope  Julius  was  hardly  buried  before  the 
spoliation  of  his  villa  began.  Like  the  Pope's  beautiful 
resting-place  behind  the  public  fountain,  the  Nym- 
phaeum  has  endured  three  centuries  of  vile  usage  and 
neglect.  Nowhere  in  Rome  is  it  more  necessary  to  use 
imagination  than  in  the  Villa  GiuUa.  The  visitor  should 
descend  into  the  lowest  court  on  a  day  of  briUiant  sun- 

[    98    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 

shine  and,  standing  before  the  Fountain  of  the  Virgins, 
replace  for  himself  the  lost  lustre  of  the  columns,  the 
whiteness  of  the  balustrades,  the  rich  coloring  of  mural 
paintings  and  stucco,  and  the  gleam  of  antique  statu- 
ary. He  should  see  the  flickering  shadows  cast  by  the 
great  plane-trees  across  the  marble  pavement,  and  hear 
the  birds  twittering  or  caUing  from  the  aviaries  which 
were  in  the  loggia  wall  above  the  river-gods.  He  must 
fancy  the  fitful  music  of  stringed  instruments,  the  per- 
fume from  the  orange  groves  drifting  over  the  garden 
walls  where  sat  the  monkeys  and  brilhant  tropical 
birds.  He  must  feel  the  languid  stir  or  deep  repose  of 
long,  indolent,  luxurious  smnmer  days,  and  through  it 
all,  he  must  be  conscious  of  the  water.  Only  so  will  he 
be  able  to  form  some  adequate  conception  of  what  the 
"secret  fountain"  must  have  been  in  the  days  of  Pope 
JuKus  ni.  The  highest  charm  of  the  beautiful  creation 
lay  in  its  presentation  of  contrast  translated  into  a  me- 
dium suitable  to  every  sense.  It  was  an  age  of  contrast, 
sharp  and  constant.  No  feature  in  the  crowded  ItaUan 
life  of  those  two  centuries  is  so  striking  as  this.  Fame 
and  obloquy;  triumphant  health  and  the  lazar-house; 
honor  and  exile;  the  luxury  of  an  Agostino  Chigi  and 
the  squalor  of  the  beggar  at  his  doors;  compassion  and 
fiendish  cruelty,  young  Cardinal  Borromeo's  sanctity 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  unblushing  licen- 
tiousness; beauty  to  which  all  but  divine  honors  were 
paid,  and  hideous  deformity;  these  lay  open  to  the  eye 
on  every  side.  There  seemed  to  be  no  transition.  The 
"secret  fountain,"  with  its  light  and  shade,  its  rest  and 

[    99    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

motion,  sound  and  silence,  its  art  and  nature,  was  the 
poetic  expression  of  life  as  it  was  known  by  the  men 
for  whom  it  was  created. 

The  records  of  those  days  are  never  free  from  blood, 
and  at  least  one  assassination  is  connected  with  the 
building  of  this  house  of  mirth.  Baronino,  an  associate 
of  Vignola  and  Amannati,  leaving  the  villa  with  a 
friend  on  a  certain  evening,  was  set  upon  as  he  turned 
into  the  Via  Flaminia  and  stabbed  to  death.  The  angle 
in  the  walls  made  by  the  pubUc  fountain  and  the  fact 
that  it  was  a  natural  place  for  loiterers  probably  sug- 
gested the  choice  of  the  spot.  The  assassin's  identity 
was  either  never  discovered  or  never  revealed  and  the 
crime  went  unpunished,  for  Cellini  was  not  the  only 
lucky  rascal.  Artists  especially  carried  their  hves  in 
their  hands,  and  genius  was  as  open  to  violence  as  it 
was  to  fame. 

Historians  and  moralists  accord  scant  justice  and 
no  mercy  to  JuUus  III.  He  is  represented  by  them  as 
spending  his  life  in  senseless  and  indolent  pleasures. 
Yet  he  had  begun  his  pontificate  with  some  show  of 
earnestness.  He  had  reopened  the  Council  of  Trent, 
and  had  attempted  to  play  a  part  in  the  diplomacy  of 
Europe.  That  after  two  years  he  wearied  of  these  ardu- 
ous labors  might  have  been  because  he  had  sufficient 
wit  to  perceive  that,  for  his  time  at  least,  the  Papal 
See  would  have  to  be  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  Austria. 
His  devotion  to  the  creation  of  his  villa  was  perhaps 
the  only  outlet  for  the  activities  of  a  nature  too  slight 
to  cope  with  the  stem  and  sinister  century  on  which 

[    loo    ] 


VILLA    GIULIA 

his  lot  had  fallen.  Long  days  spent  with  Vignola, 
Amannati,  and  Vasari,  and  above  all,  with  the  aged 
but  undaunted  Michelangelo  himself,  for  whom  this 
Pope  felt  a  loving  veneration,  must  have  had  a  zest 
and  stimulating  quality  sufficient  to  make  the  Pope's 
life  in  this  villa  something  more  than  the  sybaritic 
enjoyment  of  mere  sensuous  beauty. 

Beyond  a  doubt,  the  construction  of  his  villa  became 
an  obsession  with  the  Pope.  He  gradually  abandoned 
all  other  avocations  and  duties.  It  was  at  the  villa  that 
he  held  his  audiences,  received  ambassadors,  and  gave 
his  suppers,  at  which  last  his  wit  was  said  to  be  of  less 
fine  quality  than  were  his  vintages.  He  even  had  a 
medal  struck,  with  his  own  head  on  one  side  and  on 
the  other  the  front  elevation  of  the  Villa  Giulia,  with 
the  inscription,  "Fons  Virginibus." 

One  fatal  day  a  pet  monkey  savagely  attacked  the 
Pope.  He  was  rescued  by  a  lad  of  sixteen  whom  he  soon 
after  made  a  cardinal.  The  scandal  was  very  great. 
Prelates  and  laymen  alike  felt  this  to  be  going  too  far. 
The  Pope  might  lay  himself  open  to  censure  but  not  to 
ridicule.  Here  in  the  midst  of  the  beauty  created  by 
Pope  Julius,  men's  eyes  began  to  turn  toward  the 
sKghtly  grim,  ascetic  figure  of  Cardinal  della  Croce, 
great  Roman  patrician  and  true  saint,  who,  as  if  to  give 
the  final  note  to  this  life  of  vivid  contrast,  moved  about 
in  the  gay  papal  court,  reserved,  austere,  devoted  to  a 
life  of  such  sanctity  that  the  Pope  himself  felt  uncom- 
fortable in  his  presence. 

The  villa  was  still  far  from  finished  when  Julius 

[    loi    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Ill's  short  pontificate  came  to  an  end.  The  Conclave 
ahnost  unammously  chose  as  his  successor  their  saintly 
brother,  Cardinal  della  Croce.*  The  world  had  entered 
upon  a  new  phase.  Northern  Europe  had  brought  the 
spirit  of  the  Reformation  to  the  gates  of  Rome,  and 
men  were  ashamed  of  Pope  Julius  III,  whose  misfor- 
tune it  had  been  to  Uve  half  a  century  too  late. 

The  Villa  Giuha  passed  into  the  ownership  of  the 
popes  and  remained  there  until  it  was  taken  over  by 
the  state  in  the  present  government.  It  was  eventually 
finished  by  Popes  Pius  IV  and  Pius  V,  but  the  art 
treasures  were  scattered  far  and  wide.  During  many 
pontificates  it  was  used  for  the  stopping  place  of  am- 
bassadors and  other  great  personages  who  spent  the 
night  there  before  making  their  ceremonial  entrance 
into  Rome.  Perhaps  the  presence  of  so  much  water  and 
luxurious  vegetation  made  the  place  peculiarly  sensi- 
tive to  mould  and  decay.  Even  as  early  as  i585  it  was 
not  considered  healthful.  Sixtus  V,  with  the  restless  ca- 
price of  the  poor  sleeper,  wished  to  spend  a  night  there, 
but  was  forbidden  to  do  so  by  his  physician.  As  it  was 
papal  property,  no  private  individual  ever  had  the 
chance  to  take  over  the  beautiful  old  building  and  gar- 
dens and  keep  them  in  repair;  and  those  popes  whose 
tastes  might  have  led  them  to  restore  it  built  pleasure- 
houses  or  palaces  for  themselves.  Gregory  XIII  began 
the  Quirinal  Palace,  and  not  infrequently  for  his  ville- 
giatura  visited  the  magnificent  villa  of  Mondragone  at 

*  This  cardinal  became  Pope  Marcellus,  for  whom  Palestxina  is  said 
to  have  written  the  Mass  of  Pope  Marcellus. 

[      I02      ] 


VILLA   GIULIA 

Frascati  which  Cardinal  Altemps  had  abeady  begun  to 
build.  Sixtus  V  built  his  Villa  Montalto,  the  new  Lat- 
eran  Palace,  and  finished  the  Quirinal  Palace.  Clement 
VIII  contented  himself  with  the  Quirinal;  but  his 
great  cardinal  nephew,  Peter  Aldobrandini,  founded 
the  magnificent  Villa  Aldobrandini  at  Frascati.  The 
Medici  Leo  XI  devoted  himself  to  the  ViUa  Medici. 
Paul  V  did  indeed  make  a  restoration,  using  much 
stucco,  which  can  easily  be  distinguished  from  the 
beautiful  work  of  the  original  period,  but  that  Pope's 
interest  was  really  given  to  the  great  villa  which  his 
nephew,  Cardinal  Scipione  Borghese,  was  creating  out 
of  the  old  Villa  Cenci. 

Finally,  late  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  papal 
chair  was  occupied  by  a  man  of  culture  who  felt  the 
charm  of  the  old  Cinque  Cento  viUa  in  the  Valle  Giu- 
lia,  and  tried  to  rescue  it  from  total  ruin.  This  was  the 
GanganeUi  Pope,  Clement  XIV,  the  founder  of  the 
Clementine  sculpture  gallery  in  the  Vatican.  Clement 
XIV's  investigation  of  Pope  Julius  Ill's  villa  showed 
that  the  aqueducts  were  ruined,  the  walls  crumbled  by 
water,  the  pavements  cracked  by  fire,  while  aU  the 
wood  and  iron  work  was  broken  or  rusted,  and  the  ex- 
quisite paintings,  stucco,  and  gilding  spoiled  by  smoke 
and  damp.*  The  papal  architect,  Raphael  Stern, 
made  careful  and  elaborate  drawings  from  old  plans, 
with  a  view  to  a  genuine  restoration,  as  Pius  VI  (who, 

*  A  curious  story  related  by  Wraxall  ("  Memoirs,"  vol.  I,  p.  183) 
shows  that  the  ViUa  Giulia  in  its  eighteenth  century  period  of  isolation 
and  decay  proved  a  convenient  shelter  for  secret  crimes  committed  by 
persons  of  exalted  rank. 

I    io3    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OP  PAPAL  ROME 

in  1774,  succeeded  Clement  XIV)  carried  on  the  work. 
This  Pope  also  felt  the  fascination  of  the  marvellous, 
all  but  ruined  pleasure-house,  and  decided  to  make  it 
his  autumn  residence,  but  it  was  too  late !  Pope  Pius 
VI  was  carried  off  by  the  French  Revolutionary  forces 
in  1798  and  died  a  prisoner  in  the  French  fortress  of 
Valence.  From  that  time  forward,  the  villa  fell  more 
and  more  into  decay.  Its  pitiful  condition  might  have 
furnished  material  for  endless  sermons  on  the  vanity  of 
life,  and  the  ruin  of  its  exquisite  decorations  fills  all  art- 
ists and  lovers  of  the  beautiful  with  indignant  regret. 
It  has  been  a  veterinary  hospital,  a  cavalry  barracks, 
a  storehouse  for  hay — no  desecration  has  been  spared 
it.  At  last  the  present  government  rescued  what  was 
left  of  it  and  converted  it  into  a  museimi  of  antiquities, 
giving  the  last  ironic  touch  to  its  fate  by  fiUing  the 
rooms  built  to  minister  to  the  joy  and  pride  of  Ufe, 
with  ancient  coffins  and  reUcs  of  the  dead. 


[   io4  ] 


COLONNA 


rrm-r^f^^rrz 


COLONNA 

The  fountain  of  the  Piazza  Colonna  might  be  the 
"Fountain  of  Youth,"  for  the  freshness  of  its  marbles 
makes  it  seem  to  date  from  yesterday,  whereas  it  is  in 
reality  one  of  the  oldest  fountains  of  modern  Rome.  It 
was  constructed  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 
ago,  and  belongs  to  that  period  when  the  Acqua  Ver- 
gine  (Trevi  Water)  was  the  only  water  with  which  to 
feed  a  fountain.  As  the  Acqua  Vergine  has  not  suffi- 
cient head  to  rise  to  any  great  height,  and  as  its  supply 
is  in  continuous  and  wide-spread  use  for  domestic  pur- 
poses, the  designs  for  the  fountains  which  it  furnishes 
have  to  be  low,  and  the  sculptor  or  architect  must  rely 
for  his  effect  not  upon  any  lavish  supply  of  water  but 
upon  the  beauty  of  his  materials  and  his  own  imagina- 
tion. The  fountains  of  Giacomo  della  Porta  show  the 
practical  difficulties  with  which  he  had  to  contend,  and 
[    107    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

the  felicity  of  his  genius  in  overcoming  the  limitation. 
His  fomitain  of  the  "  Tartarughe  "  is  a  work  of  art,  and 
as  such  can  be  admired  without  the  aid  of  the  water. 
The  two  side  fountains  in  the  Piazza  Navona,  also  his 
creations,  were  quite  lovely  before  Bernini  decorated 
one  and  artists  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  other 
with  fantastic  sculpture.  His  fountain  of  the  Piazza 
Colonna  has  been  less  tampered  with  and,  standing  in 
full  sunhght  or  darkened  by  the  vast  shadow  of  the 
Antonine  Column,  it  remains,  in  its  quiet  beauty,  a 
masterpiece  among  the  Roman  fountains.  It  is  a  grace- 
ful, hectagonal  receptacle,  half  basin,  half  drinking- 
trough,  composed  of  different  kinds  of  Porta  Santa 
marble.  These  are  joined  together  with  straps  of  Car- 
rara ornamented  by  hons'  heads.*  Its  waters  come  to 
it  from  a  vase  of  antique  shape  standing  in  the  centre. 
From  the  shallow  bowl  of  this  central  vase  the  water 
gushes  upward  to  fall  over  the  rim  in  a  soft,  unbroken, 
silvery  stream,  and  through  this  vestal's  veil  the  Car- 
rara, to  which  the  waters  have  given  a  wonderful  sur- 
face, gleams  in  unsuUied  freshness  and  beauty.  Two 
tiny  jets,  set  midway  on  either  side  between  the  ends 
of  the  fountain  and  the  vase  in  the  centre,  bring  an 
additional  volume  and  add  to  the  animation  of  the 
pool.  The  vase  in  the  centre  is  represented  in  an  old 
engraving  by  Falda  as  being  much  lower  than  the 
present  one  and   carved   in  crowded  leailike  con- 

*  The  ornamental  detail  of  the  "  Sixtine  lion  "  looks  as  if  this  foun- 
tain, like  the  Tartarughe,  had  been  finished  in  the  pontificate  follow- 
ing Gregory  XIII's — that  is,  in  the  pontificate  of  Sixtus  V. 

[    io8    ] 


COLONNA 

volutions,  like  the  vase  of  the  Scossa  Cavalli  foun- 
tain. 

By  1829  this  bit  of  old  travertine  sculpture  had  be- 
come so  misshapen  that  the  artist  Stocchi,  by  order  of 
Leo  XII,  replaced  it  by  the  present  Carrara  vase,  add- 
ing at  that  time  to  either  end  of  the  trough  the  small 
groups  of  shells  and  dolphins.  These  are  such  dainty 
bits  of  fancy,  and  so  frankly  an  afterthought,  that  in 
their  first  freshness  at  least  they  could  not  have 
marred  the  beauty  of  the  original  conception.  Rather 
must  they  have  enhanced  it,  as  the  white  doves  which 
are  perched  upon  its  rim  make  the  charm  of  the 
"Pliny's  Vase."  Giacomo  della  Porta  is  the  first  foun- 
tain builder  of  modem  Rome,  and  the  fountains  which 
he  did  for  Gregory  XIII — all  constructed  for  Trevi 
Water — are  still  among  the  lovehest  the  city  holds. 
The  passion  for  fountain  building  began  in  the  second 
half  of  the  Cinque  Cento.  JuUus  III  rediscovered  the 
immense  aesthetic  value  of  water,  the  Nymphaeum  in 
his  Villa  Giuha  being,  in  fact,  the  apotheosis  of  the 
Acqua  Vergine.  Pius  V's  enlarged  fountain  of  Trevi  was 
a  recognition  of  the  importance  of  water  to  the  city's 
welfare.  This  Pope  and  his  predecessor,  Pius  FV,  as 
well  as  his  successor,  Gregory  XIII,  all  occupied  them- 
selves seriously  with  the  restoration,  improvement,  and 
upkeep  of  the  Virgo  Aqueduct.  The  return  to  the 
water  question  is  the  one  healthy  and  hopeful  sign  in 
the  city's  Kfe  during  those  years  which  lay  between  the 
death  of  old  Paul  III  and  the  accession  of  Sixtus  V. 
Michelangelo  died  within  this  period  and  his  great 

[    109    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

spirit  was  not  more  surely  departed  than  was  the  age 
of  art  and  learning  in  which  he  had  moved  as  king. 
That  outrage  to  civilization  known  as  the  "last  sack 
of  Rome"  had  occurred  in  1627,  under  Clement  VII, 
and  Rome,  in  the  person  of  her  pontijff  and  in  that  of 
every  citizen,  had  suffered  insult,  spohation,  and  dis- 
honor. 

The  devotion  of  the  Romans  to  Clement's  successor 
(the  Famese  pontiff,  Paul  III)  was  in  great  part  due 
to  their  recognition  of  the  fact  that  his  pontificate  rep- 
resented a  sustained  and  gallant  attempt  to  restore  to 
his  people  their  lost  prestige — that  figura  so  dear  to 
the  Roman  heart.  With  the  death  of  the  old  patrician 
the  deplorable  condition  of  the  city  once  more  as- 
serted itself  and  men  realized  more  keenly  than  ever 
the  permanent  devastation  wrought  by  the  sack.  Pos- 
terity gains  some  faint  idea  of  its  horrors  from  the  au- 
tobiography of  Benvenuto  Cellini.  It  is  indebted  to 
him  for  the  dramatic  description  of  the  death  of  the 
Constable  de  Bourbon,  killed  by  a  chance  shot  from 
the  ramparts  when,  in  the  dense  fog  which  enveloped 
the  beleaguered  city,  he  was  planting  the  scaling  lad- 
ders against  the  walls.  Fom*  days  earher,  and  during  the 
march  on  Rome,  the  other  commander  of  the  besieging 
army,  the  veteran  George  Freundsberg,  had  died  of  a 
stroke  of  apoplexy  brought  on  by  the  mutinous  con- 
duct of  his  troops;  so  that,  without  leaders,  forty  thou- 
sand of  the  worst  soldiery  of  Europe  were  turned  loose 
within  the  city  walls — turned  loose  to  recoup  them- 
selves for  their  long  arrears  of  wages  out  of  everything 

I    iio    ] 


COLONNA 

which  the  taste,  learning,  and  moral  sense  of  civilized 
man  has  always  held  most  precious.  History  records 
that  the  Spanish  were  the  most  cold-blooded,  the  Ger- 
mans the  most  bestial,  and  the  Italians  the  most  inven- 
tive in  forms  of  villainy.  The  week  of  unspeakable 
atrocities,  wanton  destruction,  and  wholesale  pillage 
came  to  an  end;  but  when  it  did,  that  marvellous  trea- 
sure-house of  civiKzation — Rome  of  the  Renaissance — 
had  perished,  and  the  place  thereof  was  to  know  her  no 
more.  It  was  no  wonder  that,  during  the  decade  which 
followed,  Rome — ^what  was  left  of  her — seemed  hardly 
to  breathe.  When,  during  the  pontificate  of  Paul  III 
she  began  to  revive,  it  was  plain  to  all  men  that  she 
was  not,  and  could  never  be,  the  same.  Life  came  back 
to  her  at  last,  not  through  aesthetic  but  through  ethical 
channels. 

Thenceforward  the  popes,  whether  they  wished  it  or 
not,  were  to  be  serious  men.  As  the  Reformation  spread 
through  England,  the  Low  Countries,  France  and  Ger- 
many, the  papacy  set  its  house  in  order  and  prepared 
to  fight,  not  for  its  temporal  supremacy,  as  in  the  medi- 
a;val  struggle  with  the  Emperors,  but  for  its  spiritual 
authority.  It  was  at  this  point  that  there  came  to  its 
aid  a  new  force,  a  force  whose  influence  has  never  yet 
been  accurately  measured.  In  iSSg,  just  before  the 
close  of  Luther's  fife,  Ignatius  Loyola  founded  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus.  This  was  in  the  time  of  Paul  III.  Four 
pontificates  later,  under  Pius  IV,  the  Jesuits,  as  Calvin 
was  the  first  to  call  them,  furnished  the  sensational 
element  in  the  second  sitting  of  the  Council  of  Trent; 

[    III    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

and  in  1572,  when  Ugo  Boncompagni  became  Pope, 
under  the  title  of  Gregory  XIII,  the  order  made  its 
appearance  on  the  world's  stage  as  the  recognized  di- 
rector of  the  church  militant.  The  Jesuits  were  the 
keepers  of  this  Pope's  conscience,  and  the  history  of  his 
pontificate  is  the  first  chapter  in  the  history  of  Jesuit 
rule.  For  them  the  Pope  erected  the  present  building 
of  the  CoUegio  Romano,  founded  in  Loyola's  time;  for 
them  he  founded  the  German  and  Enghsh  colleges  at 
Rome,  and,  according  to  Ranke,  "probably  there  was 
not  a  single  Jesuit  school  in  the  world  which  had  not  to 
boast  in  one  way  or  another  of  his  bounty."  The  chief 
architects  of  the  time  were  put  at  their  disposal.  Vi- 
gnola  designed  and  built  for  them  the  vast  Church  of 
"the  Gesii";  and  as  he  died  while  the  work  was  in 
progress,  his  distinguished  pupO,  Giacomo  della  Porta, 
turned  from  the  making  of  beautiful  fountains  and 
completed  the  cupola  and  fagade.  The  latter  also  built 
the  high  altar  in  that  church,  and  in  its  construction 
showed  once  more  that  love  of  rare  marbles  which  is 
so  distinctive  a  feature  in  the  Colonna  and  other  foun- 
tains of  his  creation. 

Gregory  XIII  had  begun  life  as  a  Bolognese  lawyer. 
He  had  been  called  to  Rome  by  Paul  III  the  very  year 
Loyola  founded  the  Society  of  Jesus.  He  had  gone  to 
Spain  as  Papal  legate  under  Paul  IV,  had  been  created 
cardinal  by  Pius  IV,  and  at  the  age  of  seventy  was 
made  Pope.  His  fife  had  pecuharly  fitted  him  to  appre- 
ciate Jesuit  ideals.  His  belief  in  educational  institu- 
tions, his  keen  interest  in  geography  and  the  remote 

[    112    J 


COLONNA 

comers  of  the  earth,  the  correctness  of  his  private  life 
after  his  elevation,  his  previous  worldhness,  and  his 
secular  training,  all  combined  to  make  him  the  Jesuit 
Pope.  The  Roman  Church  remembers  him  as  the 
builder  of  the  Gregorian  Chapel  in  St.  Peter's,  the  re- 
former of  the  calendar,  the  reorganizer  of  a  great  body 
of  ecclesiastical  law,  and  the  patron  of  the  Order  of  the 
Jesuits.  To  Protestants  he  remains  the  Pope  who  sang 
"Te  Deums"  for  "the  St.  Bartholomew." 

The  pontificate  of  Gregory  XIII  was  a  deplorable 
one  for  the  Holy  See  and  for  the  Romans.  Conditions 
of  Uving  sank  to  a  very  low  level.  Banditti  terrorized 
the  States  of  the  Church  and  could  not  be  controlled 
even  in  Rome.  The  great  families  whose  estates  Greg- 
ory had  confiscated  to  pay  for  his  architectural  and 
ecclesiastical  extravagances  were  in  open  revolt,  and 
the  treasury  was  empty.  Venice  had  been  estranged, 
and  England  and  the  Netherlands  were  forever  lost. 
Gregory  XIIFs  successor,  Sixtus  V,  fell  heir  to  this 
condition  of  misrule  and  disaster.  No  one  can  be  sur- 
prised at  the  grim  irony  of  the  new  pontiff  in  ordering 
masses  to  be  said  for  the  soul  of  Gregory  XIII ! 

Looking  at  the  tranquil  lovehness  of  the  Colonna 
fountain — so  white  and  shining  in  the  sunlight — ^it  is 
difficult  to  picture  it  as  a  part  of  the  turbulent  Ufe  of 
the  period  in  which  it  was  erected.  Yet  many  a  time 
its  waters  must  have  restored  consciousness,  stanched 
wounds,  stiQed  cries  for  mercy  or  succor,  and  washed 
away  the  stains  of  blood.  It  has  always  been  a  Pilgrims' 
Fountain.  Long  before  Sixtus  V  with  his  passion  for 
[    ii3    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

converting  the  "hi^h  places"  of  Paganism  into  Chris- 
tian monuments  had  restored  the  Antonine  colmnn  and 
placed  upon  it  the  statue  of  St.  Paul — long  before  that 
time  the  ascent  of  the  colunm  had  been  a  part  of  the 
Roman  pilgrims*  itinerary.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  col- 
umn had  become  the  property  of  the  monks  of  San  Sil- 
vestro,  who  leased  it  to  the  highest  bidder.  As  Rome 
numbered  her  pilgrims  by  the  thousands  in  any  year, 
and  by  the  tens  of  thousands  during  the  years  of  the 
Papal  Jubilee,  a  goodly  profit  was  derived  from  the 
fees  paid  by  the  pilgrims  to  the  custodian  of  the  colunm, 
and  the  monks  could  therefore  always  count  upon  mak- 
ing an  advantageous  lease.  Gregory  XIII,  in  erecting 
this  fountain,  must  have  thought  primarily  of  the  com- 
fort and  interest  of  the  pilgrims.  As  the  traveller  of 
to-day  remembers  the  fountain  of  Trevi,  so  the  pil- 
grim of  the  sixteenth  century  remembered  the  foun- 
tain by  the  side  of  the  Column  of  St.  Paul — the  foun- 
tain of  the  Piazza  Colonna.  Its  beauty  deUghted  the 
eyes  of  footsore  men  from  far-off  and  still  barbarous 
countries;  while  the  crystalline  waters  which  quenched 
their  thirst  and  washed  away  the  stains  of  travel  would 
have  had  for  these  Christians  from  the  North  a  sym- 
bolic significance  undreamed  of  by  the  Romans.  The 
vision  of  this  shining  fountain  has  been  carried  back  to 
many  distant  monasteries  and  remote  firesides  through- 
out the  Christian  world.  Its  situation  in  the  Piazza  Co- 
lonna, which  is  but  a  widening  of  the  Corso,  has  kept  it 
in  the  main  current  of  Roman  fife.  The  people  use  it 
and  cherish  it;  Falda  has  engraved  it;  and,  in  the  be- 

[   ii4   ] 


COLONNA 


ginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Pope  Leo  XII  em- 
bellished it  with  its  dainty  shells  and  dolphins,  as  a 
father  might  twine  flowers  in  the  hair  of  some  beautiful 
child. 


[    ii5    ] 


QUATTRO    FONTANE 


QUATTRO    FONTANE 

These  quaint  old  fountains,  now  fast  fading  away, 
were  erected  during  the  pontificate_c£^atus  Y  to  dec- 
oratelEefamoiis" "Crossing"  created  by  himself  and 
his  architect  Domenico  Fontana  when  these  two  began 
to  make  over  Rome  of  the  Renaissance  into  modern 
Rome.  The  Crossing  occurs  where  the  Via  Venti 
Settembre  traverses  at  right  angles  the  Via  Sistina. 
The  former  leads  from  the  Porta  Pia  to  the  Piazza  of 
the  Quirinal,  and  the  latter  runs  all  the  way  from  the 
Trinita  de'  Monti  to  Santa  Maria  Maggiore,  changing 
its  name  just  above  the  Crossing  to  Via  Quattro 
Fontane,  and  after  passing  the  Via  Nazionale  becom- 
ing Via  Agostino  Depretis.  The  Via  Venti  Settembre 
becomes,  after  leaving  the  Crossing  on  the  Quirinal 
side,  the  Via  Quirinale.  Sixtus  V  laid  out  the  Via  Sis- 

[    119    ] 


^iw 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

tina,  and  called  it  for  himself  the  Via  Felice.  The  Via 
Venti  Settembre  was  called  in  his  time  the  Via  Pia,  as 
it  led  to  the  Porta  Pia,  which  was  erected  by  Pope 
Pius  IV. 

The  four  fountains  are  of  travertine  and  represent— 
two  rivers  and  two  virtues.  They  are  all  by  Fontana 
except  that  one  which  is  placed  across  the  grille  in  the 
wall  of  the  Barberini  Gardens.  This  is  the  work  of  Pi- 
etro  da  Cortona.  The  choiceboth  of  the  rivers  and  of 
the  virtues  is  significant.  Pope  SStus  V's  early  life 
shows  what  need  he  had  of  fortitude,  while  fidehty 
marks  his  attitude  toward  his  two  (and  Qnly^frienrls,  .. 
Pope  Pius  V  and  Domenico  Fontana. 

The  Tiber,  represented  by  a  river-god  behind  whom 
the  reeds  are  growing,  was^Tcourse  to  be  expected. 
The  Anio,  also  a  river-god  but  with  the  emblem  of  the  _^ 
oak-tree,  may  have  been  chosen  because  of  Sixtus  V's 
intention  to  bring  its  waters  to  Rome,  not  by  an  aque- 
duct but  in  a  canal,  for  the  transportation  of  the  trav- 
ertine and  wood  needed  in  his  great  enterprises.  For 
the  Tiber  also  he  had  plans.  He  wished  to  enlarge  its 
bed  so  that  he  might  bring  up  his  galleys  from  the  sea 
to  Rome;  and  he  had  a  scheme  for  its  separation  at  the 
Ponte  Molle  and  for  bringing  one  arm  of  it  behind  the 
Vatican,  so  as  to  make  an  island  of  that  part  of  Rome 
containing  the  papal  palace,  St.  Peter's  and  the  Castle 
of  St.  Angelo.  These  were  among  the  projects  which  he 
had  not  the  time  to  carry  out,  for  Sixtus  V's  pontificate 
lasted  but  five  years.  Seeing  what  he  actually  accom- 
plished during  that  short  period  and  reading  what  he 

[     120     ] 


QUATTRO    FONTANE 


still  intended  to  do,  it  seems  as  if  this  Pope  were  not  a 
Unk  in  the  long  chain  of  St.  Peter's  successors  but  one 
of  those  '*  explosions  of  energy"  which  occur  from  time 
to  time  in  the  history  of  men. 
Sixtus  V  was  not  a  Roman  nor  even  by  descent  an 


Italian.  His  origin  was  from  the  humblest  condition  in 
Kfe.  The  family  name  of  Peretti  (a  Httle  pear)  might 
have  been  taken  by  his  father,  an  lUyrian  immigrant  of 
Slavonic  origin,  to  denote  his  occupation,  which  was 
that  of  a  fruit  gardener.  At  twelve  years  of  age  this 
man's  son,  Felix  Peretti,  became  a  Franciscan  novice; 
and  from  that  time  the  enthusiasm,  ideals,  and  limita- 
tions of  the  great  Order  of  St.  Francis  moulded  and  in- 
spired a  character  formed  by  nature  for  leadership  in 
any  position  to  which  it  might  attain.  To  an  ardent 
temperament,  an  imperious  will,  and  a  strong  intellect 

[      121      ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

was  added  a  constructive,  even  fantastic,  imagination 
of  a  high  order;  but  his  lack  of  early  culture  and  his 
exclusively  monastic  training  had  kept  him  in  igno- 
rance of  all  education  not  inmiediately  connected  with 
rehgion  and  had  bred  in  him  a  hostiUty  toward  clas- 
sic art  almost  amounting  to  fanaticism.  Such  was  the 
great  Franciscan  friar,  Felix  Peretti  who,  after  first  be- 
coming Cardinal  Montalto,  was  elected  Pope  in  i585 
and  took  the  title  of  Sixtus  V.  It  may  be  said  that,  al- 
though as  head  of  the  Roman  See  his  abihties  obtained 
a  far  wider  scope  than  his  order  could  have  given  him, 
yet  from  the  point  of  view  of  character  and  ideals  he 
remained  the  Franciscan  friar  all  his  life.  His  brief 
and  splendid  pontificate  closed  suddenly  amid  the  last 
great  political  and  rehgious  struggle  betweejL  France^ 
and  Spain.  To  neither  opponent  had  Sixtus,  who  could 
see  both  sides  of  the  conflict,  given  his  final  support; 
and  his  suspension  of  judgment  in  a  cause  where  the 
forces  of  Protestantism  were  still  represented  in  the 
person  of  Henry  of  Navarre  gave  rise  to  suspicions, 
most  unjust,  of  his  orthodoxy.  The  Roman  people  for- 
got the  benefits  and  glories  of  his  reign  and  remembered 
only  its  severity,  the  destruction  of  their  antiquities, 
the  drain  of  his  taxation,  and  his  temperate  pohcy  to- 
ward a  Protestant  king.  The  marvel  of  his  extraordi- 
nary rise  to  power  had  produced  in  the  pubhc  mind  fan- 
tastic theories,  and  when  a  great  storm  burst  over  the 
Palace  of  the  Quirinal,  where  the  Pope  lay  dying,  it 
was  conmionly  beheved  that  "Friar  Felix"  had  at 
last  been  called  upon  to  fulfil  his  part  of  the  com- 

[     122     ] 


QUATTRO    FONTANE 

pact  which  he  had  made  with  the  devil  for  power 
and  place. 

When  this  Pope  ascended  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  he 
found  an  exhausted  treasury,  a  starving  people,  a 
cramped  and  crowded  city  suffering  from  lack  of  water 
and  from  every  means  of  hygienic  living;  and  added  to 
this  there  was  such  a  condition  of  lawlessness  in  the 
States  of  the  Church  as  made  them  a  byword  through- 
out Christendom.  Within  a  year  after  his  election  the 
last  great  chieftain  of  the  banditti  had  been  destroyed, 
and  the  foreign  ambassadors  journeyed  in  safety  to 
take  up  their  abode  in  the  Holy  City.  Within  three 
years  he  had  deposited  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  great 
sums  of  money,  which  were  to  be  used,  however,  only 
for  the  defense  of  the  city,  the  purchase  of  lost  papal 
territory,  and  wars  against  the  Turks,  with  which  last 
contingency  his  imagination  was  constantly  at  play. 
During  these  years  he  had  also  reconciled  the  feud  of 
the  Colonna  and  Orsini,  had  restored  the  disputed 
privileges  of  the  nobility  in  the  great  cities,  and  had 
brought  Venice  once  more  into  harmony  with  the  pa- 
pacy. It  was  by  command  of  this  Pope,  Sixtus  V,  that 
the  gardens,  hills,  wolds,  and  valleys  of  the  States  of 
the  Church  were  planted  with  mulberry-trees,  so  that 
"where  no  com  grew  the  silk  industry  might  flom*ish." 
It  was  Sixtus  V  who  encouraged  woollen  manufacture 
so  that — to  quote  his  own  words — "the  poor  might 
have  something."  In  connection  with  this,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  see  that  he  had  f  uUy  intended  to  turn  the  Col- 
iseum into  an  immense  woollen  factory.  The  streets  of 

[    123    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Rome  resounded  with  the  cheerful  din  of  his  architects 
and  masons;  and  though  the  nobility  and  populace  had 
reason  enough  to  fear  the  entire  destruction  of  their 
ancient  monuments  at  the  hands  of  this  Franciscan, 
yet  they  could  but  admire  the  great  triumphs  of  archi- 
tecture and  engineering  which  day  by  day  raised  the 
city  to  her  lost  pre-eminence  and  restored  the  pride  of 
the  Roman  people.  His  first  great  public  enterprise 
marked  him  at  once  as  a  born  adjmnlstratorTXBS^aa-- 
the  introduction  into  Rome  of  a  new  supply  of  water,__. 
The  work  which  the  Pope  determined  should  be  worthy 
of  imperial  Rome  was  accomplished  in  spite  of  every 
obstacle  and  at  a  cost  of  two  hundred  and  fifty-five 
thousand  three  hundred  and  forty-one  scudi.  By  it  he 
all  but  doubled  the  population  of  his  city  and  reclaimed 
that  great  tract  of  land  comprising  the  Viminal,  Quiri- 
nal,  and  Esquiline  Hills.  This  quarter  had  been  a  desert 
during  eleven  centuries;  and  yet,  in  the  days  of  the 
Empire,  it  was  the  garden  of  Rome. 

Piranesi's  engravings  give  some  idea  of  the  savage 
wildness  of  the  uninhabited  parts  of  Rome ;  and  the  rag- 
ged and  uncouth  figures  with  which  he  peoples  his  ruins 
are,  no  doubt,  a  faithful  representation  of  the  squalor  of 
the  wretched  tribe  of  outlaws  who  dwelt  among  them. 
This  state  of  things  had  resulted  from  one  cause^-lack- 
of  water.  The  aqueducts  which  supphed  these  hills  had  _ 
been  the  first  to  perish  at  the  hands  of  thej>arbarians^ 
and  desolation  had  followed  inevitably  upon  their  de- 
struction. Pius  IV  had  dreamed  of  restoring  this  great 
portion  of  the  city;  but  Pius  IV,  like  his  inunediate 

[      124     ] 


QUATTRO    FONTANE 

predecessors,  had  lacked  the  means  of  doing  this.  Six- 
tus  V  brought  to  the  task  the  required  money,  public" 
tranquillity,  and  imagination.  He  found_in__the  ers^ 
while  mason's  apprentice  from  Como,  Domenico  Fon- 
tana,  the  engineer  and  architect  for  such  undertakings. 
The  old  Marcian  Aqueduct  furnished  the  materials  for 
the  Acquedotto  FeKce,  and  the  water  was  brought  all 
the  way  from  ZagaroUa  in  the  Agra  Colonna,  near 
Frascati,  twenty  miles  distant  from  Rome,  to  the 
Pope's  vineyard  outside  the  Porta  Maggiore,  and 
thence  to  the  Church  of  Santa  Susanna.  The  splendid 
stream  carried  over  these  arches  was  thus  distributed 
throughout  the  desolation  and  steriHty  of  the  Viminal, 
/Esquiline,  and  Quirinal  Hills.  With  this  water  at  his 
/command,  Sixtus  V  began  laying  out  what  might  be 
called  to-day  Sixtine  Rome — the  Rome  which  hes  be- 
tween the  terraces  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti  and  that 
portion  of  the  Aurehan  wall  pierced  by  the  six  gates — 
Porta  Pinciana,  Porta  Seilaria,  Porta  Pia,  Porta  San 
Lorenzo,  Porta  Maggiore,  and  Porta  San  Giovanni.  It 
was  an  enormous  space  to  cover,  and  the  frescoes  in  the 
Vatican  Library  show  how  desolate  and  how  wild  it 
was.  The  two  great  basihcas  of  the  Lateran  and  Santa 
Maria  Maggiore,  the  Cohseum,  and  the  Septizonium 
(for  very  good  reasons  not  included  in  the  picture),  the 
Baths  of  Diocletian,  the  Neronian  arches,  the  Villa 
Montalto  with  its  rows  of  famous  cypresses,  and  in 
one  panel  the  Moses  fountain  and  the  Porta  Pia — 
these  constitute  the  main  features  of  the  wild  land- 
scape with  its  hilly  background  and  its  foreground 
.^  [    125    ] 


\ 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

'of  rough,  bare  earth  and  shaggy  vegetation.  The  Pope 
offered  special  privileges  to  all  who  would  build  on 
these  hills,  and  he  himself  began  the  work  by  level- 
ling the  ground  about  the  Church  of  the  Trinita  de* 
Monti  and  building  the  fine  flights  of  steps  which 
lead  up  on  both  sides  to  the  church.  Half-way  be- 
tween this  church  and  the  basilica  of  Santa  Maria 
Maggiore  he  created  the  Crossing;  and  for  rest  and  _ 
refreshment,  as  well  as  for  beauty,  he  placed  here 
these  four  fountains.  This  half-way  point  in  the  long 
ascent  from  the  Trinita  de'  Monti  to  the  basilica  oC 
Santa  Maria  Maggiore^  was  well  known  to  Sixtus  V. 
Many  a  time  had  he,  as  Friar  Felix  Peretti,  climbed 
that  lonely  hillside  and  felt  for  himself  the  sohtude  and 
thirst  of  the  desolate  vicinity.  Later  on,  when  he  had 
become  Cardinal  Montalto,  he  had  passed  that  way  in 
such  state  as  a  poor  cardinal  could  command.  Here 
Fontana  had  first  built  him  a  modest  dwelling,  and 
here  he  began  to  construct  the  Villa  Montalto,  which, 
as  Fontana  labored  over  it,  became  at  length  so 
beautiful  that  it,  together  with  the  chapel  he  was  also 
building  in  Santa  Maria  Maggiore,  cost  Montalto  the 
allowance  given  by  the  Camera  Apostolica  to  poor 
cardinals,  since  the  Pope  judged  no  man  to  be  poor 
who  could  build  so  magnificently.  Gregory  XHI's 
inference  and  consequent  action  may  have  been  natu- 
ral, but  was  not  on  that  account  just.  The  endur- 
ing antipathy  between  Ugo  Boncompagni  and  Felix 
Peretti  dated  from  that  Spanish  mission  on  which 
they  had  been  sent  together  by  Pius  V;  and  when 

[    126    ] 


QUATTRO    FONTANE 

Boncompagni  had  become  Pope  and  had,  therefore, 
Cardinal  Montalto  in  his  power,  it  befitted  him  to 
make  a  thorough  investigation  of  any  matter  con- 
cerning his  old  antagonist  before  taking  action.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  villa,  though  costing  in  the  end 
thirty  thousand  scudi,  could  not  have  been  so  extrav- 
agant in  the  beginning.  The  characters  of  Cardinal 
Montsdto  and  Fontana,  as  well  as  their  accounts,  prove 
how  certainly  the  owner  and  architect  could  get  the 
best  possible  returns  for  their  money.  These  two  men 
formed  at  that  time  one  of  the  notable  friendships  of 
Eistory.  Fontana  supphed  out  of  his  savings  the  funds 
for  continuing  the  chapel;  and  Montalto,  as^ixtusV, 
proved  his  gratitude  and  appreciation.  Their  confi- 
dence in  each  other  was  as  complete  as  was  their  rec- 
ognition of  each  other's  ability.  Sixtus  gave  Fontana 
the  work  of  taking  down  and  re-erecting  the  obehsk  of 
the  Vatican — and  this,  in  spite  of  Fontana's  youth  (he 
was  forty-two  years  old  and  judged  by  his  contempo- 
raries to  be  too  young  for  such  responsibihty)  as  well  as 
the  reputation  of  Amannati  and  other  competitors. 
Furthermore,  when  the  obehsk  was  finally  lowered  to 
its  present  position  amid  the  prayers  of  the  vast  con- 
course of  people,  Sixtus  was  not  even  present.  The 
French  ambassador  was  to  have  his  audience  at  that 
hour,  and  the  state  of  Europe  was  the  Pope's  chief  con- 
cern. As  Sixtus  passed  along  the  street  to  the  Vatican, 
revolving  the  affairs  of  Phihp  II  and  Elizabeth  of 
England,  of  Mary  Stuart  and  Henry  of  Navarre, 
and  the  "Unspeakable  Turk,"  the  guns  of  St.  Angelo 
[    127    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

apprised  him  that  the  obelisk  was  in  place.  That  had 
been  Fontana's  business  and  he  had  trusted  it  to 
him.  Nevertheless,  the  old  pontiff  shed  tears  of  satis- 
faction. 

The  Villa  Montalto  was  eventually  finished  by  the 
Pope's  nephew,  Cardinal  Montalto  II,  and  later  on  it 
was  known  as  the  Villa  Negroni.  Engravings  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  show  that  it  con- 
tained an  endless  variety  of  fountains;  among  them 
Fontana's  great  fish-pond  was  truly  magnificent.  All  of 
these  had  been  made  possible  by  the  Acqua  FeUce. 
Sixtus  V  preferred  the  Quirinal  to  any  other  residence. 
Perhaps  the  Villa  Montalto  may  have  become  distaste- 
ful to  him  by  reason  of  the  crime  which  was  immortal- 
ized by  Webster's  tragedy  of  "Vittoria  Accoramboni 
or  the  White  Devil."  Cinque  Cento  Italy  was  the  Italy 
of  the  Elizabethan  dramatists,  and  in  this  tragedy,  the 
blackest  of  their  ItaHan  productions,  many  of  the  chief 
characters  were  drawn  from  actual  fife.  The  Cardinal 
Monticelso  of  the  written  tragedy  had  been  the  actual 
Cardinal  Montalto,  and  Vittoria  Accoramboni  and  her 
husband  had  been  his  nephew  and  his  nephew's  wife. 
Francesco  Peretti  was  the  cardinal's  favorite  nephew, 
and  the  ever-perplexing  question  of  the  formation  of  a 
cardinal's  household  had  been  solved  for  Montalto  by 
domicifing  Francesco  and  Vittoria  in  the  Villa  Mont- 
alto. Vittoria  had  great  beauty,  and  her  ambition  and 
audacity  were  boundless.  She  aspired  to  something 
higher  than  the  handsome  nephew  of  a  parsimonious 
and  conspicuously  infirm  old  cardinal.  She  captivated 
[    128    ] 


QUATTRO    FONTANE 

the  head  of  the  Orsini,  the  Duke  of  Bracciano,  and 
gave  him  to  understand  that  she  would  marry  him 
after  he  had  made  away  with  his  wife  and  her  hus- 
band. The  Duchess  of  Bracciano  was  the  sister  of  the 
powerful  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany.  Nevertheless,  Brac- 
ciano strangled  her  with  his  own  hands  while  pretend- 
ing to  kiss  her.  Young  Peretti  was  then  called  away 
from  the  ViQa  Montalto  one  night  on  the  pretext  that 
his  dearest  friend  had  need  of  him,  decoyed  into  the 
desolate  spaces  on  Monte  Cavallo,  and  stabbed  to 
death.  The  cardinal,  his  uncle,  buried  him  without  a 
cry  either  for  justice  or  vengeance.  He  waited.  But 
Gregory  XIII  forbade  forever  the  union  of  Vittoria  and 
the  duke.  More  the  Pope  could  hardly  dare  do  against 
the  greatest  of  his  subjects.  Vittoria  and  Bracciano 
went  through  a  mock  ceremony  and  retired  to  the 
duke's  great  fortress  castle  of  Bracciano,  not  far  from 
Rome,  where  they  waited  for  the  Pope's  death.  When 
this  occurred,  they  returned  to  the  city  in  order  to 
have  the  marriage  performed  during  that  interim  which 
must  elapse  between  the  death  of  one  pope  and  the 
election  of  another.  Vittoria  became  the  legal  Duchess 
of  Bracciano;  but  her  former  husband's  uncle,  the 
feeble  old  Cardinal  Montalto,  was  elected  Pope,  and 
the  two  great  criminals  fled  from  a  certain  and  terrible 
retribution.  Venice  at  that  time  was  the  refuge  for  all 
the  terror-stricken,  and  the  duke's  kinsman,  Ludovico 
Orsini,  hved  there  as  a  successful  general.  Bracciano 
died  there  seven  months  later;  and  six  weeks  afterward 
Ludovico  Orsini  murdered  both  Vittoria  and  her  young 

[    129    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

brother  Flaminio  in  Padua,  whither  they  had  gone  to 
live  on  the  duke's  great  legacy.  Vittoria's  possession  of 
Bracciano's  fortune,  and  the  outraged  pride  of  the  Or- 
sini  occasioned  by  her  marriage,  for  she  was  of  humble 
origin,  prompted  Ludovico's  crime.  But  all  three  of 
these  actors  in  the  tragedy  were  guests  of  Venice,  and 
Ludovico  Orsini  had  in  very  truth  reckoned  without 
his  host.  There  was  one  pride  greater  than  that  of  a 
Roman  noble,  and  that  was  the  pride  of  Venice.  Padua 
was  Venetian  territory,  and  the  repubhc  suffered  no 
such  acts  of  lawless  vengeance  within  her  jurisdiction, 
no  matter  by  whom  they  were  conamitted  nor  on  what 
provocation.  The  Venetian  reprisals  were  summary  and 
fearful.  Ludovico  Orsini  was  strangled  by  the  Bargello 
with  the  red  silk  cord  which,  as  a  nobleman,  he  had  a 
right  to  demand;  and  his  accomphces  died  by  torture 
in  the  pubUc  square.  It  was  an  age  of  crime,  flagrant 
and  atrocious;  but  the  story  of  Vittoria  Accoramboni, 
involving,  as  it  did,  the  temporary  ruin  of  the  Orsini 
family,  Hves  on  when  others  equally  horrible  have  been 
happily  buried  and  forgotten  in  the  archives  of  the 
families  in  which  they  occurred. 

Sixty  years  after  the  death  of  Sixtus  V  this  region 
about  the  Quattro  Fontane  had  become  both  fashion- 
able and  beautiful.  The  foimtains  were  then  known  as 
the  four  fountains  of  Lepidus,  and  Evelyn  described 
them  as  the  "abutments  of  four  stately  ways."  Sixtus 
V  had  made  it  illegal  for  any  house  along  his  great 
thoroughfare  of  the  Fehce  to  be  torn  down  against  the 
will  of  the  owner,  even  after  a  decree  of  the  Tribunal. 
[    i3o    ] 


QUATTRO   FONTANE 

In  an  age  of  uncertainty  created  by  the  Pope's  own 
high-handed  measures,  this  security  alone  must  have 
gone  a  long  way  toward  encouraging  building. 

In  1587  Sixtus  himself  bought  the  beautiful  Piazza  of 
Monte  Cavallo  from  the  heirs  of  the  Caraffa  family, 
and  the  Quirinal  Palace,  already  begun  by  Gregory 
XIII,  was  finished  by  him  with  great  magnificence. 
Fontana  also  built  in  one  corner  of  the  Quattro  Fon- 
tane  the  Palazzo  Mattei,  now  the  Palazzo  Albani.  The 
invaluable  stimulant  of  the  "master's  eye"  was  always 
to  be  felt  about  the  neighborhood,  for  Sixtus  V  often 
took  his  Sunday  walk  after  mass  along  these  streets, 
examining,  criticising,  and  commanding  everything. 
He  was  "always  in  a  hurry."  It  was  as  if  he  felt  the 
time  was  short.  No  modern  methods  surpass  the  rush 
of  his  undertakings;  but  unlike  the  modern  building, 
that  which  he  built  remained,  and  remains  until  this 
day.  The  feeble  body  which  so  successfully  deceived 
the  Conclave  at  his  election  and  yet  survived  for  those 
five  titanic  years  of  his  pontificate  lies  in  Santa  Maria 
Maggiore,  in  the  great  chapel  built  for  him  by  his  Fon- 
tana. There,  as  Stendhal  truly  says:  "Amid  aU  the 
marble  magnificence,  what  one  really  cares  to  see  is 
the  sculptured  physiognomy  of  the  Pope  himself." 

One  other  statue  of  this  Sixtus  which  formerly 
adorned  Rome  would  now  be  of  surpassing  interest. 
It  was  erected  at  the  Capitol  in  the  Pope's  lifetime, 
and  was  the  work  of  that  gifted  young  Florentine  art- 
ist, Taddeo  Landini,  who  modelled  the  bronze  boys  in 
the  Tartarughe  fountain.  The  night  the  Pope  died  this 

[    i3i    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

statue  was  covered  by  boards  for  fear  of  the  violence 
of  the  mob,  and  soon  after  it  was  removed;  but  it  is 
probably  still  in  existence,  and  the  increasing  interest 
in  Sixtine  Rome  may  some  day  bring  it  to  Ught. 

In  this  mortuary  chapel  in  Santa  Maria  Maggiore 
there  is  also  the  tomb  of  Pope  Pius  V,  erected  by  Sixtus 
V,  and  one  of  the  panels  in  the  Vatican  Library  depicts 
the  solenm  removal  of  the  old  saint's  body  to  this  splen- 
did resting-place.  Sixtus  V  saw  this  accomplished  in  his 
lifetime,  for  his  devotion  to  the  Pope,  who,  like  himself, 
had  begun  life  as  a  friar,  and  who  had  made  him  car- 
dinal and  stood  his  friend  in  trouble,  never  wavered 
nor  grew  cold.  Historians  have  dwelt  much  upon  Sixtus 
V's  parsimony.  Economy  was  said  to  be  his  favorite 
virtue.  But  the  best  of  the  Quattro  Fontane  is  that 
which  represents  the  virtue  of  fidelity;  and  this  is  the 
only  one  of  them  which  is  decorated  with  the  emblems 
of  Sixtus  V. 


[    i3a   1 


TARTARUGHE 


TARTARUGHE 

GiACOMO  BELLA  PoRTA,  Domenico  and  Giovanni  Fon- 
tana,  Carlo  Maderno,  and  Bernini  are  the  Roman  mas- 
ters in  the  gentle  art  of  fountain-making.  Giacomo  deUa 
Porta  stands  first  chronologically,  and  he  has  also 
created  the  loveKest  of  the  lovely.  This  is  the  Tar- 
tarughe  fountain  for  which  the  Senate  and  people  of 
Rome  paid  over  twelve  hundred  scudi,  evidently  a 
large  sum  at  that  time  for  a  fountain,  as  Baghoni  men- 
tions it  particularly.  Giacomo  della  Porta  dehghted  in 
rare  marbles  and  for  his  fountain  of  the  Tartarughe  he 
carved  the  broad  shallow  bowl  of  the  classic  drinking 
cup  in  the  centre  in  bigio  morrato  fasciato,  or  veined 
gray  marble,  while  he  made  the  stem  of  a  mottled 
yellow  marble  called  Saravezza.  The  cup  stands  upon 
a  Carrara  base,  moulded  and  carved  with  decora- 
tive shields  or  escutcheons,  from  the  four  corners  of 
which  project  huge  shells  of  rare  beauty  and  distinc- 
tion of  form  carved  in  different  varieties  of  African 
marble.  It  rises  from  a  shallow  travertine  basin,  grace- 
fully shaped  and  shghtly  sunk  below  the  level  of  the 
present  pavement.  So  far  there  is  nothing  to  distin- 
guish this  fountain  from  others  of  its  kind  except  the 

[    i35    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

richness  of  its  marbles  and  the  shape  of  the  shells,  but 
its  four  bronze  figures  so  harmoniously  composed  give 
this  design  the  dignity  of  a  work  of  art,  and  make  it  the 
most  exquisite  of  Roman  fountains.  They  are  by  Tad- 
deo  Landini,  whose  early  death  was  a  distinct  loss  to 
the  world  of  art. 

These  figures  are  of  boys  in  the  most  beautiful  period 
of  adolescence,  their  sinuous  bodies  lean  against  the 
sweUing  stem  of  the  cup,  one  slender  leg  of  each  figure 
pushed  backward  so  that  the  foot  rests  on  the  toes, 
preserving  the  balance,  while  the  other  leg,  lifted  high 
and  bent  at  the  knee,  presses  its  foot  upon  the  head  of 
a  bronze  dolphin.  The  torsos  lean  toward  each  other  in 
couples,  each  supporting  itself  on  its  elbow  so  that  the 
right  shoulder  of  the  one  and  the  left  shoulder  of  the 
other  come  rather  close  together.  The  hands  of  these 
supporting  arms  grasp  the  tails  of  the  dolphins,  while 
the  other  arms,  raised  high  above  the  head,  push  up- 
ward with  open  palms  and  outspread  fingers  four 
bronze  tortoises  which  clamber  over  the  rim  of  the  cup 
in  haste  to  plunge  into  the  water.  Projecting  from  the 
under  surface  of  the  rim  are  carved  in  marble  heads  of 
cherubs,  so  placed  that  the  water  which  they  spout 
falls  in  a  steady  stream  between  the  figures  of  the  boys 
and  is  received  into  the  lowest  basin. 

The  composition  of  these  figures  of  boys  and  water- 
creatures  is  quite  lovely;  and  the  water,  rising  in  a 
central  jet  from  the  drinking-cup,  gushing  from  the 
mouths  of  the  dolphins  and  slipping  in  slender  runnels 
from  the  cunningly  curved  lips  of  the  huge  shells  en- 

[    i36    ] 


Fountain  of  the  Tartarughe. 


TARTARUGHE 

hances,  as  it  should,  the  joyous  naturalness  of  the 
entire  conception. 

The  popular  appreciation  of  the  beauty  of  the  Tar- 
tarughe  is  shown  by  the  wide-spread  impression  that  it 
was  designed  by  Raphael.  It  is  painful  to  give  up  that 
behef,  and  in  the  face  of  facts  which  prove  the  hope- 
lessness of  such  a  contention  the  enthusiastic  admirer 
can  only  assert  that  had  Raphael  designed  a  fountain 
this  is  the  fountain  he  would  have  designed. 

There  is  assuredly  some  excuse  for  this  assertion. 
Raphael  depicted  often,  and  with  peculiar  tenderness, 
the  gracious  figures  of  youths.  There  is,  also,  a  whim- 
sicahty  in  this  conceit,  a  certain  sympathy  seems  to 
unite  the  boys  with  the  water-creatures;  it  is  as  if  they 
were  all  joining  in  the  sport  of  their  own  free  will,  and 
might  at  any  moment  break  away  from  each  other 
only  to  reunite  in  some  fresh  prank  in  splashing  water 
under  happy  skies.  All  this  is  highly  reminiscent  of  the 
art  of  Raphael.  Ry  virtue  of  it  the  Tartarughe  belongs 
not  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  but  to  that 
great  period  of  the  High  Renaissance  when  "  for  Leo  X 
Raphael  filled  rooms,  galleries,  and  chapels  with  the 
ideal  forms  of  human  beauty  and  the  pure  expression 
of  existence." 

This  fountain  was  erected  in  the  last  year  of  the  pon- 
tificate of  Gregory  XIII  and  the  first  year  of  the  pontif- 
icate of  Sixtus  V,  which  would  explain  why  its  erection 
is  attributed  sometimes  to  the  reign  of  one  pope  and 
sometimes  to  that  of  the  other.  It  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  Sixtus  V  could  have  permitted  the  erection 

[    i39    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

of  any  fountain  so  entirely  devoid  of  scriptural  sugges- 
tion, so  purely  pagan  in  its  expression  of  joyous  and 
irresponsible  life,  as  is  the  Tartarughe.  Possibly  the 
play  of  the  boys  in  the  splashing  water  reminded  the 
old  man,  who  was  in  spite  of  his  fierce  enthusiasms  so 
kindly  and  so  human,  of  the  far-off  days  of  his  child- 
hood. As  Cardinal  Montalto  he  had  done  much  for  his 
native  village,  and  many  acts  of  his  pontificate  prove 
he  had  the  poor  always  with  him.  He  never  forgot  their 
suflTerings  or  their  simple  pleasures,  and  in  that  old 
heart  there  lingered  memories  of  his  father's  fruit  gar- 
den at  Formi,  of  the  pear-trees  which  he  placed  in  his 
coat  of  arms,  and  of  the  great  cistern  in  which  he  dab- 
bled with  such  happy  recklessness  that  one  day  he  fell 
in  and  had  to  be  fished  out  like  any  other  urchin  des- 
tined or  not  for  the  papal  chair. 

Rome  would,  undoubtedly,  be  the  richer  for  a  foun- 
tain by  Raphael,  but  it  is  probably  fortunate  for  the 
Tartarughe  that  it  was  not  of  Raphael's  creation.  It  is 
not  Ukely  that  this  bit  of  fancy  in  bronze  and  rare  mar- 
bles could  have  escaped  destruction  at  the  time  of  the 
sack  of  Rome  in  1627,  only  six  years  after  Raphael's 
death.  Perhaps,  also,  this  last  blossom  from  the  golden 
Summer  of  Italian  Art  owes  its  perfect  preservation  to 
its  position  in  an  obscure  comer  close  to  what  was  once 
the  Ghetto.  Rut  as  a  setting  for  this  gem  no  situation 
could  be  more  inadequate.  A  mean  square  of  dingy, 
uniformly  ugly  houses  surrounds  it,  and  there  is  not 
one  redeeming  feature  in  aU  this  dreariness  except  the 
patch  of  blue  sky  overhead.  A  fountain  fit  to  be  the 

[    i4o   ] 


TARTARUGHE 

crowning  beauty  of  some  prince's  garden  or  to  be  cele- 
brated in  a  canto  of  "The  Faerie  Queene"  plays  on  in 
this  commonplace  part  of  Rome  unheeded,  and  seem- 
ingly uncEired  for.  However,  when  in  1898,  one  of  the 
tortoises  was  stolen  the  indignation  felt  at  the  theft 
was  so  wide-spread  and  so  fierce  that  the  thief  was  only 
too  glad  to  abandon  the  precious  tortoise  in  a  place 
where  it  could  be  easily  discovered. 

Trevi  water  supplies  this  fountain  at  present.  Until 
quite  recently  it  was  the  Acqua  Paola,  but  its  deposits 
had  so  discolored  the  bronze  and  marbles  that  the 
water  in  the  shells  was  changed  back  to  the  Trevi, 
for  which  water  it  was  originally  constructed.  How- 
ever, the  highest  jet  in  the  fountain  was  not  changed, 
as  Paola  water  can  rise  to  a  much  higher  level  than 
Trevi. 


[   i4i   ] 


FONTANA    DEL    MOSfi 


FONTANA    DEL    MOSE 

This  is  the  first  of  the  great  Fontana  fountains,  and  if 
Domenico  Fontana  got  his  inspiration  for  it  from  the 
beautiful  pubKc  fountain  made  by  Amannati  for  Julius 
III  on  the  Via  Flaminia,  with  which  he  was  famihar 
before  the  Casino  was  placed  above  it,  his  fountain  in 
its  turn  became  the  prototype  for  the  great  fountains 
erected  in  the  next  century  by  his  brother  for  Pope 
PaulV. 

This  Fountain  of  the  Moses  is  a  great  portal  consist- 
ing of  three  arches  equal  in  size,  from  the  base  of  which 
the  water  issues  in  double  cascades.  The  water  falls 
into  three  large  basins  guarded  by  couchant  lions,  and 
each  lion  spouts  an  additional  stream  of  water.  In  the 

[    i45   ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

centre  archway  stands  a  colossal  figure  of  Moses  in  the 
act  of  striking  the  rock,  and  the  niches  on  either  side  of 
him  are  filled  by  high  reliefs  of  sceneOfom^  the  Old 
Testament  relative  to  the  importance  and  significance 
of  water.  The  rehef  to  the  right  represents  Gideon  test- 
ing his  soldiers  and  is  the  work  of  Flaminio  Vacca^/€^d 
in  the  left  Giovanni  Battista  della  Porta  has  carved  " 
the  scene  in  the  desert  after  Moses  has  brought  the 
water  from  the  rock.  Four  beautiful  marble  colunms 
with  Ionic  capitals  stand  one  on  either  side  of  these 
arches,  and  in  the  small  triangular  spaces  between  the 
^pitals  and  the  keystones  are  the  emblems  of^^us^ 
^  V— )the  star,  the  three  mounts,  the  pear  branch  and  the 
lion.  These  arches  and  colunms  support  a  massive  en- 
tablature of  which  the  inscription,  in  the  noble  Six- 
tine  caligraphy,  forms  the  most  important  feature,  and 
is,  in  fact,  the  most  impressive  part  of  the  entire  struc- 
ture. Above  the  inscription  rises  the  florid  pediment, 
flanked  by  two  obeUsks  (an  idea  distinctly  borrowed 
from  Amannati's  fountain)  and  bearing  on  its  apex  the 
three  mounts  of  Sixtus  V  which  carry  the  huge  iron 
cross.  Underneath  this  and  occupying  the  greater  part 
of  the  pediment  are  the  armorial  bearings  of  Sixtus  V. 
The  huge  shield  is  supported  by  two  angels,  a  conceit 
borrowed,  perhaps,  from  Pius  IV's  escutcheon  over  the 
Porta  Pia,  and  repeated  again  for  Paul  V  in  his  foun- 
tain on  the  Janiculum.  The  armorial  sculpture  is  by 
Flaminio  Vacca.'Such  is  the  great  Fontana  fountain, 
grandiose  rather  than  magnificent,  but  still  distinctly 
imposing  and  adequately  filUng  by  its  size  and  impor- 

[    i46    ] 


FONTANA    DEL   MOSfi 

tance  the  honorable  position  which  it  occupies  among       / 
the  fountains  of  Rome,  It  is  thejaaindelivOTy  tank  of        A/^ 
J^e  Acqua  Felice^i  and  the  Acqua  FeKce  was  the  first         ^tt^^, 
new  supply  of  water  which  Rome  had  received  since 
the  aqueducts  had  been  cut  off  from  the  city  by  Vitiges 
:&_537. 

_  The  statue  of  Moses  is  a  colossal  blunder^  Prosper©  ^ 
Bresciano  had  modelled  the  curious  Sixtine  hons  which__ 
served  to  support  the  Vatican  obelisk,  and  the  Pope 
gave  him  the  commission  for  the  principal  figure  in  his 
great  fountain.  Contrary  to  the  advice  of  his  friends, 
Bresciano  carved  this  statue,  which  was  to  be  his  mas- 
terpiece, directly  from  the  travertine  without  any  pre- 
vious modelling — the  block  lying  horizontally  on  the 
ground.  When  the  figure  was  raised  it  was  found  to  be 
not  only  out  of  proportion  but  also  out  of  conformity 
with  the  laws  of  perspective.  Its  unveiling  was  greeted  \ 
by  the  critical  Roman  populace  with  a  shout  of  derisive  \    '--^ , 
laughter,  so  Homeric  in  its  volume  and  duration  that  it 
utterly  condemned  the  artist,  who,  as  a  result,  fell  into  / 
a  melancholia  and  died.  / 

The  present  lions,  which  are  of  bigio  marble,  are 
modern,  dating  from  the  days  of  Gregory  XVI  (i846). 
This  Pope  created  the  Egyptian  Museum  in  the  Vati- 
can and  removed  thither  the  original  lions,  which  were 
of  Egyptian  origin  and  had  been  appropriated  for  his 
fountain  by  Sixtus  V — two  from  the  Piazza  of  the  Pan- 
theon and  two  from  the  gate  of  St.  John  Lateran. 

The  two  great  points  of  difference  between  the  Fon- 
tana  fountains  and  the  Amannati  fountain  on  the 

[    47    1 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

Flaminian  Way  are  interesting  and  significant.  They 
are,  first,  the  place  of  the  inscription,  and  secondly  the 
volume  of  water.  The  first  point  of  difference  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  Fontana  fountains,  here  and  on  the 
Janiculum,  proclaim  the  appearance  in  the  city  of 
a  new  supply  of  water.  Sixtus  V  and  Paul  V  had  each 
built  a  new  aqueduct  and  could  announce  the  fact  con- 
spicuously by  magnificent  inscriptions;  whereas  Juhus 
III,  using  a  stream  of  water  from  an  aqueduct  already 
in  existence,  could  only  claim  the  honor  of  having 
erected  the  fountain  for  the  convenience  of  the  public. 
His  inscription,  therefore,  is  not  borne  aloft  on  tri- 
umphal arches  but  occupies  a  place  in  the  central  niche, 
filled  in  Sixtus  V's  fountain  by  the  figure  of  Moses,  and 
in  Paul  V's  fountain  left  absolutely  vacant.  The  stream 
which  JuUus  III  dared  appropriate  from  the  Virgo 
Aqueduct  was  only  large  enough  to  fill  a  single  basin 
placed  before  the  central  niche  of  Amannati's  foun- 
tain; whereas  in  the  Fontana  fountains  the  water  fills 
the  entire  space  below  the  mostra,  as  it  was  naturally 
the  intention  to  show  the  magnitude  and  force  of  the 
new  supply. 

Pope  Sixtus  V's  great  fountain  demands  for  its  effect, 
like  Paul  V's,  wide  and  spacious  surroundings.  The 
high  modem  buildings  crowding  upon  it  and  dwarf- 
ing it  have  done  much  toward  diminishing  its  artistic 
values.  One  of  the  panels  in  the  Vatican  Library  shows 
what  the  fountain  was  like  in  the  years  immediately 
following  its  erection.  Gardens  and  vineyards  lay  all 
about  it,  and  it  easily  dominated  the  walls  and  gate- 
ways which  were  its  only  architectural  neighbor^.  The 

[    i48   ] 


FONTANA    DEL    MOSE 

Porta  Pia  to  the  left  merely  enhanced  its  digjjity,  and 
in  the  far  distance  the  hills,  aqueducts,  and  the  open 
sky  lent  themselves  for  a  magnificent  background. 

The  Acqua  Fehce,  which  was  the  first  water  of  papal  \ 
Rome,  had  been  the  last  water  brought  to  the  ancient^    ) 
city.  In  226  the  Emperor  Alexander  Sevenis  built  the   / 
eleventh  and  last  aqueduct  of  the  classic  city.  Its  re- 
mains are  still  to  be  seen  on  the  Via  Praenestina.  Over 
this  aqueduct  he  brought  the  Acqua  Alexandrina,  which 
was  from  practically  the  same  sources  as  those  which 
now  supply  the  Acqua  FeHce.  The  Acqua  Alexandrina 
was  brought  by  the  Emperor  down  the  Via  Labicana 
as  far  as  the  Esquiline,  where  he  erected  for  it  a  mag- 
nificent fountain.  A  coin  of  his  period  shows  the  de- 
sign to  have  somewhat  resembled  the  present  "Fon- 
tanone"  on  the  Janiculum. 

Sixtus  V  selected  as  the  site  for  his  fountain  an  open 
space  on  the  Viminal  Hill  near  the  Church  of  Santa 
Susanna.  He  faced  it  southwest,  at  right  angles  to  the 
Via  Pia,  which  terminated  at  some  distance  to  the 
northeast  in  the  Porta  Pia.  The  Acqua  Fehce  enters 
Rome  at  the  Porta  Maggiore  at  the  altitude  of  Bg 
metres  and  supphes  21,682.8  cubicmetres  of  water 
daily.  In  order  to  bring  the  water  to  Fontana's  foun- 
tain it  was  necessary  to  cut  a  wide  street,  the  Via  Ce- 
ruaia,  and  to  tunnel  through  the  Baths  of  Diocletian. 
Although  the  Acqua  Fehce  served  the  Pope's  purposes 
and  Uterally  made  the  desert  blossom  like  the  rose,  Six- 
tus V  had  no  sentiment  about  it.  When  the  water  actu- 
ally reached  the  city,  his  sister  and  nephew,  thinking  to 
please  him,  hastened  to  bring  him  a  cupful.  The  Pope,  / 

[    i49    ]  I 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

who  hated  a  scene  of  any  kind,  refused  to  drink  it,  de- 
claring that  it  had  no  taste,  which  is  quite  true.  It  is  to 
this  day  the  least  valued  of  the  Roman  waters,  and  the 
overflow  or  "lapsed  water"  of  Fontana's  great  foun- 
tain is  used  for  laundry  purposes. 

The  Pope  bought  the  land  containing  the  feeding- 
springs  of  the  Acqua  Fehce  from  Cardinal  Colonna, 
and  brought  it  to  the  city  underground  for  thirteen 
miles  and  for  the  remaining  seven  over  arches.  Its 
channel  is  known  as  the  "ugly  aqueduct." 

The  worst  of  the  crimes  conunitted  by  Sixtus  V  and 
Domenico  Fontana  against  the  antiquities  of  the  city 
was  the  destruction  of  the  Septizonium.  Artists  of  the 
period  have  left  invaluable  sketches  of  this  last  fine  ex- 
ample of  classic  architecture.  It  had  been  built  by  Sep- 
timius  Severus  against  the  Palatine,  probably  as  an 
architectural  screen  to  the  mass  of  confused  buildings 
in  its  rear.  It  faced  south  down  the  road  by  which 
travellers  from  Africa  entered  the  city.  It  had  survived 
the  sieges,  the  earthquakes,  and  the  fires  of  more  than 
thirteen  centuries;  yet  Sixtus  V,  without  a  qualm,  de- 
moHshed  it  for  the  sake  of  the  blocks  of  travertine  and 
peperino  and  its  beautiful  marble  columns,  which  he 
wished  to  use  in  his  own  architectural  enterprises.  It  is 
impossible  not  to  wonder  what  were  Fontana's  feeUngs 
as  he  superintended  the  destruction  of  this  masterpiece 
of  his  own  profession.  He  does  little  more  than  mention 
the  fact  in  his  memoirs,  and  this  may  be  in  itself  signif- 
icant. Some  of  the  material  went  into  the  fabric  of  the 
Moses  fountain;  but  the  Romans  never  forgave  either 
Sixtus  V  or  Fontana. 

[    i5o    ] 


FONTANA    DEL    MOSfi 

Considering  the  dearth  of  water  in  Rome  in  the  six- 
teenth centiu-y  and  the  character  of  Sixtus  V,  the  con- 
ception of  the  central  idea  of  this  fountain — that  of 
Moses  striking  the  rock — was  not  only  happy  but  al- 
most inevitable.  Although  the  Pope  was  an  ardent 
churchman,  it  was  easier  for  him  to  beheve  in  the  con- 
version to  CathoUcism  of  the  conquerer  of  Ivry  than  to 
understand  that  the  Roman  ruins  had  any  other  than  a 
commercial  value.  Leo  X  had  beheved  in  art  "for  art's 
sake."  He  had  beheved  in  nothing  else.  To  Sixtus  V,  on 
the  other  hand,  all  the  efforts  of  painting,  sculpture, 
and  architecture  were  to  be  for  the  glory  of  God, 
more  particularly  as  that  glory  was  imderstood  and 
expounded  by  himself.  The  Neptunes  and  Tritons  of 
later  pontificates  would  have  seemed  to  him  creations 
of  the  devil.  The  Old  Testament  was  to  him,  as  it 
was  to  the  Enghsh  Puritan  of  the  next  century,  the 
source  of  artistic  inspiration;  and  for  his  great  fountain 
the  Hebrew  lawgiver,  bringing  the  water  out  of  the 
rock  at  the  Divine  command,  was  alone  adequate.  It 
was  not  unnatural  for  him  to  think  of  himself  as  stand- 
ing in  the  place  of  Moses. 

SIXTVS  •  V  •  PONT  •  MAX  •  PICENVS 

AQVAM  •  EX  •  AGRO  •  COLVMNAE 

VIA  •  PRAENEST  •  SINISTRORSVM 

MVLTAR  •  COLLECTIONE  •  VENARVM 

DVCTV  •  SINVOSO  •  A  •  RECEPTACVLO 

MIL  •  XX  •  A  •  CAPITE  •  XXII  •  ADDVXIT 

FELICEMQ  •  DE  •  NOMINE  •  ANTE  •  PONT  •  DIXIT 

COEPIT  •  AN  •  I  •  ABSOLVIT  •  III  •  MDLXXXVII 

[    i5i    ] 


^  THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

Pope  Sixtus  V,  of  the  Marches,  conducted  this  water 
from  a  junction  of  several  streams  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Colonna,  at  the  left  of  the  Prsenestine  road,  by  a 
winding  route,  twenty  miles  from  its  reservoir  and 
twenty-two  from  its  source,  and  called  it  Felix,  after 
the  name  he  himself  bore  before  his  pontificate.  He  com- 
menced the  work  in  the  first  year  of  his  pontificate,  and 
finished  it  in  the  third,  1587. 


[    i52    ] 


THE    LATERAN 


THE    LATERAN 

Modern  photographs  can  still  be  found  of  the  original 
fountain  of  the  Lateran.  It  was  the  work  of  Fontana 
and  was  placed  in  this  spot  after  he  had  erected  the 
obehsk  for  Sixtus  V.  The  present  fountain  is  quite  new 
and  most  inadequately  replaces  the  old  one  which  had 
stood  there  for  over  three  hundred  years.  By  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century  the  upper  basin  of  Fontana's 
fountain  was  badly  broken,  while  the  lower  one  had 
been  held  together  for  some  time  by  iron  clamps.  The 
carving  was  so  worn  and  defaced  that  the  dolphins  and 
eagle  were  quite  shapeless,  and  the  figure  of  St.  John 
writing  in  a  scroll  upon  his  knee  and  looking  to 
Heaven  for  inspiration  had  long  since  disappeared. 
Maggi's  engraving  of  this  fountain  made  in  1618^ 
[    i55    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

shows  it  to  have  been  one  of  the  richest  ever  designed 
by  Fontana.  A  curious  feature  in  this  old  fountain 
was  the  blending  of  the  insignia  of  three  popes.  The 
pears  of  Sixtus  V  were  carved  in  heavy  festoons  imder 
the  huge  supporting  scrolls  of  the  mostra  (which  was 
a  screen  made  low  so  as  to  bring  the  figure  of  St.  John 
in  simple  and  high  rehef  against  one  of  the  square 
sides  of  the  pedestal),  the  Borghese  eagle  poured  the 
water  into  the  shell-shaped  upper  basin;  and  finally 
the  Aldobrandini  bar  of  continuous  Maltese  crosses 
was  used  as  frieze. 

The  obelisk  of  the  Lateran  was  set  in  its  present 
place  by  Fontana  only  two  years  before  the  death  of 
Sixtus  V,  and  it  is  quite  probable  the  fountain  was 
not  erected  until  some  years  later.  Sixtus  V  rushed 
the  work  on  the  Lateran  at  top  speed;  and  this 
obelisk  was  no  sooner  in  place  than  Fontana  was 
commissioned  to  transport  its  companion  to  the  Piazza 
del  Popolo.  The  Lateran  obelisk  was  erected  in  i588. 
In  August,  1690,  Sixtus  V  died.  Four  popes  followed 
him  in  rapid  succession — Urban  VII,  Gregory  XIV, 
and  Innocent  IX,  all  dying  so  soon  that  by  January 
20,  1692,  Clement  VIII  (Aldobrandini)  had  become 
Pope;  and  Fontana  may  have  finished  this  fountain 
during  the  first  years  of  Clement's  pontificate,  before 
he  fell  under  that  pontiff's  displeasure.  The  frieze  on 
the  fountain  must  have  been  originally  the  Montalto 
or  Peretti  frieze,  which  forms  so  beautiful  a  finish 
to  the  Lateran  Palace;  but  Fontana,  while  keeping 
the  star  of  Montalto  (one  of  Sixtus  V's  emblems)  in 

[    i56    ] 


THE    LATERAN 

the  corners  under  the  cornice  of  the  screen,  changed 
the  design  of  the  intervening  space  into  the  Aldobran- 
dini  bar.  It  was  a  small  detail,  and  the  change  was  a 
mere  matter  of  custom  and  policy  and  involved  no  dis- 
loyalty to  the  great  past  in  Fontana's  life.  This  would 
account  for  the  Aldobrandini  frieze.  The  eagle  seems  at 
first  more  difficult  to  explain.  From  the  accession  of 
Paul  V  the  eagle  denotes  the  Borghese  family ;  but  Paul 
V  did  not  become  Pope  until  i6o5,  and  Fontana  left 
Rome  for  Naples  in  1696.  Therefore,  the  eagle  of  this 
fountain  cannot  have  any  connection  with  the  Bor- 
ghese family.  Why  did  Fontana  use  it  instead  of  the 
lion's  head,  which  was  another  of  Sixtus  V's  emblems 
and  would  have  made  a  better  architectural  outlet  for 
the  water  P  It  must  have  been  because  the  eagle  is  the 
emblem  of  St.  John.  In  Michelangelo's  fresco  of  the 
Fourth  EvangeUst  in  the  Sixtine  Chapel  the  eagle 
stands  with  bent  head  and  folded  wings  close  against 
the  figure  of  the  saint  who,  seated  upon  the  ground,  is 
writing  in  the  scroll  supported  by  his  knee.  Fontana,  or 
the  sculptor  who  carved  for  him  the  figure  on  the  top 
of  the  mostra  of  this  fountain,  was  undoubtedly  in- 
spired by  Michelangelo's  creation.  The  St.  John  of  the 
fountain  was,  according  to  the  old  engravings,  a  beau- 
ful  and  youthful  figure  looking  to  Heaven  for  inspira- 
tion and  writing  in  the  scroll  held  upon  his  knee.  The 
eagle  was  wanting,  but  Fontana  placed  him  just  below 
the  cornice  between  the  curving  tails  of  the  dolphins, 
and  adapted  him  to  the  purposes  of  a  fountain.  The  de- 
sign was  original  and  extremely  interesting,  as  it  shows 

[157] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

both  Sixtus  V  and  Fontana  in  a  new  and  unusual  light. 
They  were  dominated  by  the  place.  The  great  new  Lat- 
eran  Palace  which  they  had  built,  the  ancient  obelisk 
which  they  had  set  up,  the  fountain  which  suppUed  the 
invaluable  Acqua  Felice,  were  all  subservient  to  the 
venerable  basilica  of  St.  John.  The  piazza  and  all  that 
it  contained  were  dedicated  to  St.  John,  and  had  been 
so  for  seven  hundred  years.  Pope  and  architect  may 
have  felt  that  in  this  fountain  the  insignia  of  any  pon- 
tiff were  more  fittingly  kept  in  a  purely  subordinate 
position. 

The  mostra  of  the  old  fountain  rested,  as  the  present 
one  does,  on  the  base  of  the  obelisk;  and  the  fine  Pi- 
ranesi  engraving  of  the  Piazza  of  the  Lateran  shows  its 
position  and  proportions  as  well  as  the  admirable  bal- 
ance which  it  gives  to  the  entire  scene. 

This  obeUsk  is  still  the  highest  in  the  world,  although 
the  lower  end  was  so  badly  broken  and  damaged  (by 
fire)  that  Fontana  had  to  shorten  it  by  three  feet.  It 
was  also  broken  in  three  pieces,  and  Fontana's  device 
for  mending  it,  which  so  pleased  the  Pope,  can  be  traced 
in  various  places  among  the  hieroglyphics.  When  the 
obehsk  was  at  last  erected,  Fontana  carved  his  name 
with  his  title  of  knight  in  Latin  on  the  base,  and  the 
three  mounts  and  the  star  of  Sixtus  V  were  fastened 
to  the  apex.  Above  everything  was  placed  the  huge 
bronze  cross,  for  Sixtus  V  considered  the  obelisk  to  be 
the  supreme  smybol  of  divinity  in  a  great  Pagan  the- 
ology; and  by  placing  the  cross  on  all  those  which  he 
re-erected,  the  Pope  felt  that  he  was  exhibiting  in  the 

[    i58    ] 


THE    LATERAN 

most  picturesque  and  conspicuous  manner  the  triumph 
of  Christianity. 

This  obelisk,  which  is  of  red  granite,  was  found  by 
accident  lying  prone  and  buried  in  the  marshy  ground 
of  the  Circus  Maximus.  Near  by  was  another,  the  one 
which  now  stands  in  the  Piazza  del  Popolo.  Fontana 
employed  five  hundred  men  in  raising  and  removing 
the  obehsk  of  the  Lateran.  Of  these  men,  three  hundred 
were  employed  day  and  night  keeping  out  the  water 
which  poured  in  on  all  sides.  This  stream  is  now 
thought  to  have  been  the  brook  Crabra,  the  "goat 
brook"  of  Tusculum,  described  by  Frontinus,which,  in 
the  general  decay  of  mediaeval  times,  had  become  one 
of  the  "lost  waters"  of  Rome.  The  difficulties  encoun- 
tered in  transporting  the  obelisk  up  the  rough  sides  and 
through  the  old  streets  of  the  Quirinal  Hill  were  nu- 
merous. The  obehsk  of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo  was  re- 
moved from  the  same  place  and  set  up  on  its  present 
site  for  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  three  hundred  and 
thirty-one  scudi;  whereas  this  obehsk  of  the  Lateran 
cost  the  papal  treasury  twenty-four  thousand  six  hun- 
dred and  eleven  scudi. 

It  was  originally  brought  to  Rome  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Christian  era.  Twenty-seven  years  after 
Constantine  had  transferred  the  seat  of  goverrmient 
to  his  own  new  capital  of  Byzantium,  his  successor, 
Constantine  II,  visited  Rome.  He  visited  Rome  hke 
any  foreign  prince  and  was  profoundly  impressed  by 
the  magnificence  and  majesty  of  his  discarded  capi- 
tal. A  not  unnatural  instinct  prompted  him  to  leave 

[    i59    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

some  memorial  of  himself  among  the  monmnents  and 
trophies  of  his  heroic  predecessors;  and  for  this  pm"pose 
he  sent  for  the  obelisk  which  Thotmes  III  had  origi- 
naUy  placed  before  the  great  temple  of  Thebes.  It  was 
brought  to  Rome  and  placed  in  the  Circus  Maximus. 
Its  subsequent  history  and  the  causes  of  the  fall  of  this 
last  of  the  imperial  obeUsks  are  stiU  lost  in  the  mys- 
tery which  hangs  over  so  much  of  mediaeval  Rome.* 
The  original  pedestal  had  been  too  damaged  by  fire 
to  admit  of  using  it  again;  so  Sixtus  V  gave  permission 
to  Domenico  Fontana  to  make  the  new  pedestal  out  of 
the  materials  of  an  old  arch  which  Domenico  was  to 
destroy  for  this  purpose.  The  permission  was  given  in 
writing,  for  Domenico  Fontana  had  found  that  it  was 

*  The  fate  of  the  Roman  obelisks  presents  one  of  the  most  baffling 
and  fascinating  problems  of  archaeology.  As  no  satisfactory  explana- 
tion of  their  overthrow  and  mutilation  has  ever  been  given,  possibly 
the  theory  that  they  were  destroyed  by  the  Romans  of  the  Dark 
Ages,  in  search  of  bronze,  is  as  good  a  working  hypothesis  as  any 
other.  The  idea  that  they  were  wrecked  by  barbariEms,  and  the  assump- 
tion that  they  were  thrown  down  by  etuthquakes  are  equally  imtenable. 
Much  curious  evidence  goes  to  show  that  some  of  the  principed  obe- 
Usks were  standing  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries.  One  stood  erect 
on  its  pedestal  in  Charlemagne's  time,  while  the  fall  of  another  can  be 
placed  as  late  8is  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century.  Three  of  the  principal 
obelisks  show  holes  drilled  in  the  shaft  for  the  insertion  of  levers  or 
crowbars,  and  have  unmistakable  marks  of  fire  about  the  pedestal. 
Now,  the  Romans  genereilly  re-erected  the  obelisk,  not  directly  upon 
its  pedesteJ,  but  upon  bronze  crabs  (as  in  the  obeUsk  of  the  Vatican) 
or  upon  brass  "dice"  (as  in  the  larger  of  the  two  obelisks  in  Consttm- 
tinople).  The  Elgyptians  sheathed  the  pyramidion  of  the  obelisk  with 
"  bright  metal "  to  reflect  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  the  Romans  crowned 
the  apex,  sometimes  if  not  always,  with  metal  ornaments,  Uke  the  ball 
upon  the  Vatican  obehsk,  which,  until  it  was  removed  by  Sixtus  V, 
was  supposed  to  contain  the  ashes  of  Julius  Caesar.  The  obehsk  now  in 
Central  Park  had  been  re-erected  by  the  Romans  at  Alexandria,  in 
this  fashion,  and  one  of  the  bronze  crabs  was  brought  to  New  York 
with  the  obelisk,  and  is  now  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum.  These 

[    i6o   1 


THE    LATERAN 

necessary  to  be  armed  with  written  instructions  from 
the  Pope  whenever  he  began  one  of  his  devastating 
raids  upon  the  antiquities  of  the  city.  The  city  govern- 
ment had  endured  such  pillage  and  destruction  at  the 
hands  of  the  great  Pope's  great  architect  that  all  the 
past  vandalism  of  private  individuals  seemed  shght  in 
comparison.  They  protested  in  vain  against  most  of  the 
destruction  upon  which  Sixtus  V  had  set  his  heart,  and 
neither  princes  nor  magistrates  could  save  the  old  pon- 
tifical residence  of  the  Lateran  which  had  stood  since 
the  seventh  century  on  this  very  piazza.  It  was  a  mar- 
vellous rambhng  pile  of  buildings — churches,  monas- 
teries, shrines,  loggias,  colonnades,  oratories,  banquet- 
ing rooms  and  halls  filled  with  mosaics,  pictures,  and 

bronze  supports  were  firmly  attached  to  the  obelisk  by  heavy  bronze 
dowels,  one  dowel  running  upward  into  each  comer  of  the  shaft, 
the  other  going  down  into  each  comer  of  the  pedestal.  Between  the 
shaft  and  the  pedestal  there  was  therefore  a  space,  perhaps  some  four 
inches  in  height,  through  which  light  was  visible.  This  was  seen  in  the 
Vatican  obelisk,  which  was  stiU  in  situ  when  Fontana  drew  his  plans 
for  changing  its  location,  and  in  the  Central  Park  obelisk,  as  described 
by  an  eye-witness  of  its  removal.  Three  historians  of  Rome's  destruc- 
tion— Fea,  Dyer,  and  Gibbon — describe  the  almost  incredible  in- 
genuity, labor,  and  patience  exerted  by  the  Romems  of  the  Dark  Ages 
in  their  search  for  bronze  and  other  metals.  Wherever  bronze  could  be 
obtained,  it  was  stolen,  stripped,  or  melted,  on  account  of  its  value  smd 
the  ease  with  which  it  could  be  tremsported.  During  the  same  historic 
period,  all  pagan  monuments  were  deprived  of  whatever  protection 
they  had  had  as  objects  of  rehgious  veneration.  The  obeUsks  standing 
in  spacious  and  lonely  surroundings  would  have  proved  an  easy  prey  to 
bands  of  clandestine  or  open  marauders.  The  Roman  method  of  blast- 
ing consisted  in  building  a  fire  against  the  rock  and  pouring  vinegar, 
or  even  water,  upon  the  red-hot  stone  which  then  disintegrated.  It 
would  have  been  an  easy  matter  to  kindle  great  fires  at  every  comer 
of  the  pedestal  which,  by  the  time  this  kind  of  destruction  became 
popular,  had  already  lost  much  of  their  original  height  through  the 
gradued  rise  of  the  groimd  level.  This  method  of  blasting  by  fire  would 
account  for  the  all  but  universal  gnawing  away,  or  rough  rounding  off 

[    i6i    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

frescoes — and,  according  to  a  great  authority,  the  most 
wonderful  museum  of  mediaeval  art  that  ever  existed. 
This  priceless  record  of  the  past  was  ruthlessly  demol- 
ished and  razed  to  the  ground  in  a  few  months'  time  by 
order  of  Pope  Sixtus  V.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  his 
motives  for  this  particular  action,  since  it  was  not  the 
history  of  Paganism  but  of  his  own  predecessors  that 
he  was  destroying.  The  populace  never  forgot,  or  for- 
gave him  this  destruction,  involving  as  it  did  the  loss 
of  the  Oratory  of  the  Holy  Cross.  An  exquisite  example 
of  early  Christian  architecture,  built  in  the  shape  of  a 
Greek  cross,  this  oratory  was  held  in  peculiar  venera- 
tion by  all  classes;  and  the  Roman  people  might  not 
mmaturally  conclude  that  the  wanton  destruction  of 
anything  at  once  so  beautiful  and  so  sacred  as  this  ora- 
tory could  only  be  ascribed  to  the  promptings  of  the 

of  the  lower  comers  of  the  shaft,  in  which  the  bronze  dowels  were  so 
firmly  embedded.  After  the  disintegration  of  the  granite  the  partiaUy 
melted  bronze  could  be  extracted  from  both  shaft  and  pedestal,  but 
not  before  the  shaft  had  been  thrown  over,  and  this  was  evidently 
helped  along  by  the  use  of  levers.  When  the  shaft  was  prone,  it  became 
possible  to  remove  any  bronze  which  had  been  attached  to  its  summit. 
With  perhaps  only  one  exception,  the  fallen  shafts  were  always  found 
broken  in  three  pieces,  but  there  seems  to  be  no  record  of  any  bronze 
found  in  Rome,  near  the  original  sites  of  the  obelisks.  What  bronze 
there  is  was  on  the  one  Roman  obelisk  that  had  not  been  thrown 
down  (the  Vatican  obelisk).  The  original  site  of  this  obelisk,  in  the 
centre  of  the  old  circus  of  Caligula  and  Nero,  was  close  to  the  old 
Church  of  St.  Peter,  and  it  was  furthermore  protected,  according  to 
Lanciani,  by  the  chapel  at  its  base,  called  the  Chapel  of  the  Crucifixion. 
When,  in'  1586,  Fontana  removed  this  obeUsk  to  its  present  position  in 
the  centre  of  the  modern  Piazza  of  modem  St.  Peter's,  he  re-erected  it 
upon  its  original  classic  Roman  crabs,  hiding  them  by  the  purely 
decorative  Sixtine  lions  of  Prospero  Rresciano,  as  they  had  been  hid- 
den in  earUer  times  by  the  bronze  Uons  mentioned  by  Plutarch,  and 
gone  since  the  sack  of  Rome  in  1527.  The  obelisk  in  Constantinople, 
referred  to  above,  is  still  standing  on  its  four  brass  "dice." 

[      162     ] 


THE    LATERAN 

devil  himself.  Posterity  can  hardly  accept  Pope  Sixtus 
V's  fountain,  even  with  its  obehsk,  as  an  adequate  sub- 
stitute for  the  three  fountains  of  rare  marble  in  the 
atrium  of  this  oratory  which  perished  by  order  of  the 
Pope. 

The  Church  of  St.  John  Lateran  was  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Kings  of  France,  as  the  Church  of  Santa 
Maria  Maggiore  was  under  the  protection  of  the  Kings 
of  Spain,  St.  Peter's  under  that  of  the  Emperor  of  Aus- 
tria, and  St.  Paul's  Beyond  the  Walls  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Enghsh  sovereign.  In  the  pontificate  of 
Clement  VIII,  when  the  papacy  began  to  turn  toward 
France  in  its  foreign  poHcy,  the  work  of  embeUishing 
the  Lateran  cost  Rome — and  indeed  large  portions  of 
the  surrounding  country — untold  treasures  in  costly 
marbles  and  gilt  bronzes.  The  first  were  sawed  into 
slabs  for  the  transept  of  the  Church;  and  the  Altar  of 
the  Sacrament  owes  its  magnificence  to  the  many  hun- 
dred bronzes  which,  together  with  portions  of  the 
bronze  beams  of  the  Pantheon,  went  to  the  smelting 
furnaces.  In  Sixtus  V's  time,  however,  the  old  church 
was  still  comparatively  simple;  and  it  was  in  this  old 
Church  of  the  Lateran,  probably  during  his  pontifi- 
cate, that  Stradella's  prayer  ("Pity,  oh.  Saviour!") 
was  sung,  while  hired  assassins  waited  in  the  outside 
darkness  to  take  the  composer's  Hfe.  As  the  service 
was  long,  the  bravos  stepped  inside  the  church  to  en- 
joy the  music  before  committing  the  murder.  There,  in 
the  wavering  light  of  the  altar  candles  and  under  the 
subtle  influence  of  the  incense,  they  became  so  im- 
[    i63    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OP  PAPAL  ROME 

pressed  by  the  pathetic  beauty  of  that  marvellous  Aria 
di  Chiesa  that  they  felt  it  impossible  to  put  out  of  ex- 
istence the  man  who  could  write  such  music;  and  in 
the  darkness  and  silence  that  followed  the  close  of  the 
divine  melody  they  themselves  warned  Stradella  of  the 
plot  against  his  hfe  and  abetted  his  escape. 

Of  late  years  this  legend  has  been  discredited;  but  in 
such  a  case  as  this  it  is  well  to  remember  the  attitude 
taken  by  the  writer  of  "The  Renaissance  in  Italy," 
"I  would  rather  accept,"  says  Symonds,  "sixteenth- 
century  tradition  with  Vasari  than  reject  it  with  Ger- 
man or  Enghsh  speculators  of  to-day.  I  regard  the 
present  tendency  to  mistrust  tradition,  only  because  it 
is  tradition,  as  in  the  highest  sense  uncritical." 

Over  the  door  of  the  Vatican  Library  is  a  fresco  map 
of  Sixtine  Rome.  It  portrays  not  what  Sixtus  V  actu- 
ally left,  but  what  he  at  one  time  intended  to  leave.  In 
this  fresco  a  great  thoroughfare  runs  from  the  Piazza 
del  Popolo  to  the  Piazza  Laterano,  and  at  each  end  of 
the  magnificent  vista  stands  an  obeUsk  erected  by  the 
Pope.  Such  a  street  laid  out  to-day  would  lead  along 
the  Via  Babuino,  the  Piazza  di  Spagna  and  the  Via  Due 
MaceUi,  and,  passing  through  the  tunnel,  come  out  on 
the  Via  Merulana,  and  reach  the  Piazza  Laterano  after 
traversing  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Esquiline  and  the 
new  streets  between  it  and  the  basiUca.  Sixtus  V  aban- 
doned the  idea  as  the  great  thoroughfare  would  have 
cut  its  way  directly  through  the  precincts  of  the  Quiri- 
nal,  and  he  had  determined  to  make  that  spot  his  own 
abode,  not  only  because  he  loved  it  but  because  he 

[    i64   ] 


THE    LATERAN 

recognized  the  sovereign  quality  of  the  situation  of 
Monte  Cavallo  in  the  Rome  which  he  was  reconstruct- 
ing. 

The  Fontana  fountain  of  the  Lateran  is  not  included 
by  Baglioni  in  his  hst  of  Fontana's  works;  but  that  list 
which  is  embodied  in  his  account  of  Fontana's  life  is 
manifestly  incomplete.  The  fountain  was  engraved  in 
full  detail  as  early  as  1618  by  Maggi;  and  later  engrav- 
ings were  made  of  it  by  Cruyl,  Millotte,  and  Falda. 
These  designs  were  so  comprehensive  that  it  would 
have  been  an  extremely  simple  matter  to  entirely  re- 
construct the  old  fountain,  more  especially  as  the 
mostra  and  old  basins  were  still  in  place,  and  there 
could  have  been  no  difficulty  in  ascertaining  the  pro- 
portions. Had  this  been  done,  the  pictorial  effect  and, 
above  all,  the  historical  interest  of  the  Piazza  of  St. 
John  Lateran  would  have  been  greatly  enhanced.  The 
old  fountain  disappeared  in  the  general  submersion  of 
papal  Rome.  Its  modern  substitute  is  a  mere  peira- 
phrase,  and  the  eagle  seems  intentionally  to  represent 
the  eagle  of  imperial  Rome  rather  than  the  emblem  of 
St.  John. 


[    i65    ] 


TRINITA    DE'    MONTI 


TRINITA    DE'    MONTI 


The  fountain  on  the  terrace  in  front  of  the  Villa  Med- 
ici has  been  called  by  a  lover  of  Rome  "The  Foun- 
tain of  the  Brimming  Bowl."  It  is  a  happy  surname, 
for  the  marble  vase  beneath  the  formally  clipped  ilex 
trees  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  huge  bowl  filled  to 
overflowing  with  the  Acqua  FeKce.  The  stream  gushes 
upward  in  a  slender  column  until  it  reaches  the  spread- 
ing branches  overhead.  There  it  returns  upon  itself  in 
clouds  of  gUstening  spray,  filling  the  bowl  with  circles 
of  gleaming  water,  ever  widening  until  they  brim  over 
the  edge  and  veil  the  marble  in  a  continuous  overflow. 
The  octagonal  basin  which  receives  this  copious  stream 

[    169    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

is  sunk  into  the  ground  and  its  shadowed  waters  have 
all  the  unobtrusive  beauty  of  a  quiet  and  sequestered 
pool.  There  is  no  sculpture,  no  decoration.  With  un- 
erring taste,  the  artist  has  made  his  appeal  to  the  eye 
through  fundamental  and  universal  elements  of  beauty. 
Grace  of  line  and  of  proportion,  contrast  of  soHd  rock 
and  flowing  water,  the  impression  of  abundance  and 
perpetuity,  symmetry,  contrast,  suggestion — these  are 
the  simple  qualities  out  of  which  he  composed  his 
Fountain  of  the  Brimming  Bowl. 

Sunlight  flickering  through  the  ilex  branches  over- 
head and  the  crumbUng  shadows  of  their  dense  foliage 
add  a  poetic  charm,  whUe  the  Itahan  trinity — ^Art, 
Time,  and  Nature — have  given  to  this  modest  foun- 
tain a  background  of  unsurpassed  interest  and  dignity. 
The  view  from  the  terrace  of  the  Villa  Medici  might 
be  described  almost  exactly  by  Wordsworth's  sonnet 
on  London  Bridge,  and  truly 

"Dull  would  he  be  of  soul  who  could  pass  by 
A  sight  so  touching  in  its  majesty." 

Here  in  Rome  '*.  .  .  towers,  domes,  theatres,  and 
temples  He,"  massed  together  in  that  famous  quarter 
of  the  city  known  in  classic  times  as  the  Campus  Mar- 
tius;  and  through  this  architectural  maze,  spanned  by 
bridges  old  and  new,  the  Tiber  "floweth  at  its  own 
sweet  will."  On  its  farther  shore  the  modern  Palace  of 
Justice  and  a  network  of  thoroughfares  with  names  re- 
lating to  the  Risorgimento  and  to  Italy  of  to-day 
crowd  against  the  venerable  Castle  of  St.  Angelo.  Be- 

[    170    ] 


TRINITA    DE'    MONTI 

yond  that  lies  the  densely  packed  Borgo  or  Leonine 
city,  surrounded  by  walls,  while  the  heights  of  the  Ja- 
niculum  to  the  left  and  those  of  the  Vatican  Hill  and 
Monte  Mario  to  the  right  give  a  background  of  green 
to  all  this  masonry.  In  the  very  centre  of  the  distance, 
on  the  ground  once  covered  by  the  Circus  of  Nero, 
dominating  everything  and  seeming  to  float  against 
the  western  sky,  rises  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's. 

The  terrace  leads  on  the  one  hand  to  the  gardens  of 
the  Pincio  and  on  the  other  to  the  Church  of  the  Trin- 
ita  de'  Monti.  From  i544  to  i56o,  when  Anmbale  Lippi 
was  working  on  the  Villa  Medici,  that  portion  of  the 
Pincian  Hill  covered  to-day  by  the  Pincian  Gardens 
belonged  to  the  Augustinian  monks  of  the  Piazza  del 
Popolo.  The  villa  stood  on  the  ground  between  them 
and  the  gardens  and  convent  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti. 
The  terrace  with  the  fountain  was  the  approach  to  the 
cardinal's  villa  and  to  the  precincts  of  the  convent. 
The  old  engravings  show  the  fountain  standing  quite 
free  from  trees,  which,  however,  are  growing  along  the 
edge  of  the  hill  and  down  its  slope.  The  fountain  is 
generally  ascribed  to  Annibale  Lippi,  but  there  seems 
to  be  no  positive  proof  that  it  is  his  work.  It  resembles 
in  general  outline  the  fontanella  on  the  balcony  inside 
the  villa,  which  is  by  Lippi;  and  the  fact  that  the  basin 
is  made  of  bigio  marble  might  put  its  date  as  early  as 
Lippi's  time.  The  fountains  in  the  first  half  of  the 
Cinque  Cento  were  generally  made  of  marble  or  gran- 
ite, whereas  after  Fontana  and  in  Bernini's  period 
travertine  was  used  almost  exclusively. 

[    171    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

The  villa  was  the  property  of  Cardinal  Monte  Pul- 
ciano,  but  it  was  barely  finished  when  Cardinal  Ferdi- 
nand de'  Medici  began  negotiations  for  its  purchase. 
Medici,  whose  childhood  had  been  passed  in  the  Bo- 
boli  Gardens,  which  were  created  by  his  father,  spent 
eleven  years  in  laying  out  and  beautifying  the  ggu-dens 
of  this  villa,  where  he  had  a  small  zoological  collection, 
and  also  in  making  the  gallery  of  Greek  and  Roman 
sculpture  which  rivalled  that  already  belonging  to  his 
old  friend  Cardinal  Alessandro  Farnese.  He  returned  to 
Florence  in  iSSy,  and  some  time  after  the  villa  passed 
into  the  hands  of  another  Medici,  Cardinal  Aless£mdro, 
who  became  Pope  Leo  XI  in  i6o5.  This  Cardinal  Ales- 
sandro de'  Medici  also  spent  much  time  and  money  in 
the  decoration  of  the  villa,  and  it  seems  probable  that 
the  fountain  was  constructed  during  his  tenure  of  the 
property,  since  the  introduction  of  the  Acqua  Felice  in 
1587  had  at  last  made  it  possible  to  have  fountains  on 
this  hijlside.  Evelyn,  describing  this  fountain  in  the 
last  days  of  Pope  Urban  VIIFs  pontificate,  speaks  of 
the  magnificent  jet  of  water  spouting  fifty  feet  into  the 
air.  The  earliest  engravings  of  it  date  from  the  middle 
of  the  Sei  Cento  and  show  the  water  springing  from  a 
large  ball  of  travertine  which  has  long  since  lost  its  size 
and  shape  from  the  constant  action  of  the  water.  The 
pedestal  and  base  of  this  fountain  are  also  of  travertine. 

The  present  Church  of  the  Trinity  de'  Monti  was 
erected  by  Louis  XVIII,  of  France,  to  replace  the  orig- 
inal building  which  had  been  destroyed  during  the  ex- 
cesses of  the  French  Revolutionary  period.  But  in  i544 

[    172    ] 


TRINITA    DE'    MONTI 

the  old  Gothic  church  of  the  Valois  King  stood  looking 
westward  over  the  French  quarter  of  the  city.  This 
church  dated  from  the  year  i495,  when  Charles  VIII, 
of  France,  on  his  way  to  reconquer  his  Neapohtan  ter- 
ritory, entered  Rome  and  paid  a  visit — half  threaten- 
ing, half  ceremonious — to  Alexander  VI.  He  left  as  a 
memorial  of  his  stay  in  Rome  this  Church  of  the  Tri- 
nita  de'  Monti.  The  church  became  the  nucleus  of 
French  influence  in  Rome.  The  French  convent  of  the 
Sacred  Heart  grew  up  beside  its  walls,  and  many  fa- 
mous Frenchmen  hved  within  its  shadow. 

Cardinal  Ferdinand  de'  Medici,  who  gave  his  family 
name  to  this  villa,  as  well  as  to  the  Venus  which,  upon 
its  discovery  in  Hadrian's  Villa,  he  immediately  bought 
and  placed  here,  was  one  of  the  commanding  figures  of 
his  time.  Fourth  son  of  Cosimo,  first  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany,  he  had  been  made  a  cardinal  at  fourteen,  in 
the  room  of  his  elder  brother  Cardinal  Giovanni  de' 
Medici,  who  had  died  at  nineteen.  The  second  Grand 
Duke  of  Tuscany,  Ferdinand's  eldest  brother,  died  in 
1687,  leaving  no  son,  and  so,  after  twenty-four  years  of 
ecclesiastical  life.  Cardinal  Ferdinand,  who  had  never 
taken  holy  orders,  laid  by  the  red  hat  to  become  third 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany.  He  married  Christine  de  Lor- 
raine, a  granddaughter  of  Catherine  de'  Medici,  and 
therefore  a  distant  cousin  of  his  own,  and  had,  like  his 
great-grandfather  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  and  his 
own  grandfather  Cosimo  I,  eight  children,  his  eldest 
son  succeeding  to  the  grand  duchy.  It  is  difficult  to 
trace  in  the  wise  and  beneficent  grand  duke  the  in- 

[    173    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

tractable  young  cardinal  who  had  been  a  handful  for 
even  Sixtus  V.  The  old  pontiff  had  found  in  him  an 
obstinacy  and  a  craft  equal  to  his  own,  and  he  must 
have  "thanked  God  fasting"  when  Medici  was  no 
longer  a  member  of  his  curia !  The  Pope  was  an  old 
man,  and  the  cardinal  had  the  physical  advantage  of 
youth;  nevertheless  it  was  a  battle  royal  when  this  true 
chip  of  the  Medicean  block  interceded  with  the  Peretti 
Pope  for  the  life  of  his  old  friend,  Cardinal  Alessandro 
Farnese.  Sixtus,  who  was  not  to  be  shaken  in  his  deter- 
mination, kept  track  of  the  time,  and  held  firmly  to  his 
resolution  until  he  was  sure  that  the  appointed  hour 
for  Famese's  death  had  come  and  gone;  then,  knowing 
that  it  was  too  late,  he  graciously  consented  to  spare 
Famese's  life,  to  please  his  Cardinal  de'  Medici.  But 
the  cardinal  knew  his  Sixtus  V,  and  had,  before  his 
audience,  taken  the  precaution  to  set  every  clock  in  the 
Vatican,  outside  the  Pope's  private  apartments,  back 
one  hour !  *  The  fire  still  Kves  in  the  ashes  of  this  Ferdi- 
nand, for,  in  1906,  a  deputation  from  Leghorn  visited 
his  tomb  in  the  Medici  mausoleum  in  Florence  and  laid 
upon  it  a  bronze  wreath  as  a  testimony  of  their  undying 
gratitude  and  affection.  Leghorn,  a  mere  fishing  village 
of  the  Cinque  Cento,  had  been  raised  to  her  position 
of  the  second  seaport  in  Italy  by  this  ex-cardinal,  and 
that  chiefly  through  the  operation  of  an  edict  of  tolera- 
tion almost  incredible  at  the  period  in  which  it  was 
promulgated.  When  the  Spanish  Armada,  the  struggle 

*  This  story  is  told  in  another  form.     In  it  Cardinal  Famese  employs 
the  same  ruse  to  save  the  life  of  the  young  Duke  of  Parma. 

[     174     ] 


TRINITA    DE'    MONTI 

in  the  Netherlands,  and  the  religious  wars  in  France 
kept  all  Europe  in  a  ferment,  Leghorn  rose  suddenly 
and  swiftly  like  an  exhalation  of  the  sea  through  the 
peaceful  labors  of  the  French,  Flemish,  and  Jewish  refu- 
gees who,  within  her  walls  and  under  the  powerful 
protection  of  her  Grand  Duke,  the  ex-cardinal,  found 
absolute  Uberty  of  conscience  and  security  of  life  and 
property.  It  was  this  Ferdinand  who  furnished  from 
his  own  rich  coffers  the  sinews  of  war  to  Henry 
of  Navarre;  it  was  he  who  mediated  between  Henry 
and  the  Pope;  and  it  was  his  niece,  Maria  de'  Medici, 
who  became  Queen  of  France  as  wife  of  Henry  IV, 
bringing  with  her,  as  SuUy  said,  such  a  marriage 
portion  as  had  never  before  been  brought  into  the 
kingdom. 

Five  years  after  this  event  Cardinal  Alessandro  de' 
Medici  became  Pope;  so  the  Villa  Medici,  as  well  as  the 
Church  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti,  had,  in  spite  of  their 
Italian  names,  many  affihations  with  far-off  Paris; 
and  partly  on  account  of  these  associations,  partly 
for  the  sake  of  the  marvellous  view,  their  terraces 
became  the  favorite  haunt  of  those  artists  who,  in 
the  early  days  of  the  Sei  Cento,  began  to  find  their 
way  to  Rome. 

In  the  continuity  of  the  development  of  art  there 
are  few  events  more  interesting  than  the  appearance 
of  the  French  art  student  in  Rome.  Gaul  had  been  the 
first  of  the  northern  nations  to  assimilate  Roman  cul- 
ture, and  France  was  the  first  to  come  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Renaissance.  Just  at  the  time  when  the 

[    175    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL   ROME 

Catholic  reaction  against  the  license  of  the  Cinque 
Cento  had  begun  to  force  Italy  under  the  stultifying 
influence  of  Spanish  domination,  France  awoke  to  the 
full  consciousness  of  her  aesthetic  nature  and  to  her 
need  of  those  things  which  Italy  alone  could  give.  The 
army  of  Charles  VIII  had  carried  back  across  the  Alps 
imperishable  memories  of  beauty,  and  soon  afterward 
Francis  I  had  enticed  to  Paris  some  of  the  greatest 
Italian  artists  of  the  time.  Even  the  fierce  religious 
wars  of  the  sixteenth  centiu'y  could  not  stamp  out  the 
seed  sown  by  the  soldiers'  stories  and  by  the  works  of 
art  left  by  homesick  Itahan  masters  in  Fontainebleau. 
One  by  one  the  eager  French  artists  crossed  the  Alps, 
and  they  came  in  ever-increasing  numbers  when  the 
genius  of  Richelieu  brought  order  and  amenity  into 
French  life,  and  when  Richelieu's  contemporary,  Maf- 
feo  Barberini,  for  many  years  papal  legate  to  France, 
had  become  Pope  Urban  VIII.  To  reach  Rome  all  of 
these  voyagers  had  to  endure  severe  physical  hard- 
ships, and  some  of  them  never  returned  to  France.  The 
greatest  of  them — Le  Poussin  and  Claude — died  in 
Rome.  Painters,  engravers,  sculptors,  and  architects 
came  to  these  terraces  to  worship  and  to  work,  and  to 
this  day  the  galleries  and  palaces  of  northern  Europe 
cherish  the  pictures  planned  or  sketched  about  the 
Fountain  of  the  Brimming  Bowl. 

Pope  Urban  VIII,  who  died  in  i644,  was  himself 
half  French,  not  only  by  virtue  of  his  temperament 
and  genius,  but  also  by  the  trend  of  his  sympathies 
and  his  foreign  poKcy.  Under  his  enlightened  patron- 

[    176    ] 


TRINITA    DE'    MONTI 

age,  the  artists  of  France  found  a  congenial  home  in 
the  Eternal  City.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  French 
Academy  of  Painting  in  Rome,  which  was  formally 
founded  in  1666  by  Colbert,  the  great  minister  of  Louis 
XIV.  For  the  first  seven  years  of  its  existence  this  in- 
stitution had  no  permanent  abode;  but  in  1678  the 
Capronica  Palace  was  placed  at  its  disposal,  and  later 
on — in  Louis  XV's  time — ^it  moved  to  the  Mancini  Pal- 
ace near  the  Corso.  The  slope  leading  from  the  Piazza 
of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti  (now  the  Piazza  di  Spagna) 
to  the  terraces  above  had  all  this  time  been  a  natural 
hillside,  whereon  grew  trees,  grass,  and  wUd  flowers 
famihar  to  Rome.  The  footpaths  leading  upward  must 
have  been  a  rather  steep  climb;  but  five  years  before 
the  founding  of  the  Academy  an  event  occurred  which 
was  to  make  the  ascent  of  the  hillside  not  only  easy 
but  dehghtful.  In  166 1  Rome  came  into  the  possession 
of  a  large  sum  of  money  left  to  the  city  by  the  learned 
French  gentleman,  Etienne  de  Gueffier,  for  the  express 
purpose  of  constructing  a  magnificent  stone  stairway 
which  should  cover  this  slope  of  the  Pincian  Hill,  and 
unite  for  all  time  the  Campus  Martius  with  the  ter- 
races above.  The  stairway  was  long  in  building,  and 
during  its  construction  the  connection  between  the 
Academy  in  the  Mancini  Palace  and  the  old  terraces  of 
the  Trinita  de'  Monti  may  have  been  slender;  but  in 
1725  the  Scahnata  was  opened  with  great  pomp,  and 
once  again  French  artists  could  spend  long  hours  on 
their  beloved  terraces.  Seventy-six  years  later  Napo- 
leon, with  his  supreme  instinct  for  effect  (a  possession 

[    177    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

he  shared  with  Julius  Caesar),*  and  not  unmindful  of 
the  French  association  with  this  quarter  of  the  city, 
removed  the  French  Academy  from  the  old  Mancini 
Palace  and  lodged  it  permanently  and  most  impres- 
sively where  it  now  is,  in  the  Villa  Medici,  the  villa 
built  by  that  family  which  had  given  two  queens  to 
France.  So  the  fountain  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti  is  still 
a  feature  in  the  life  of  the  French  artists  at  Rome;  and 
it  is  perhaps  a  pardonable  fancy  that,  in  this  particu- 
lar fountain,  the  Acqua  Felice  plays  in  French ! 

*  Suetonius,  Bk.  I.     "And  he  (Csesar)  mounted  the  Capitol  by  torch- 
light with  forty  elephants  bearing  lamps  on  his  right  and  on  his  left." 


[     178     ] 


VILLA    BORGHESE 

NOW 

VILLA    UMBEKTO  PRIMO 


VILLA    BORGHESE 

NOW 

VILLA    UMBERTO    PRIMO 

A  garden  where  the  centuries 

Of  men  have  come  and  none  did  care 

Save  for  the  green  grass  and  the  breeze 

And  shelter  from  the  noontide  glare. 

But  that  which  meikes  the  garden  fair — 

The  sense  of  Life's  futility, 

Is  deathless  beauty.     Bom  of  Death, 

It  blossoms  under  cloudless  skies — 

One's  very  dream  of  Itedy. 

— From  an  unpublished  MS. 

Such  a  garden  was  the  Villa  Borghese;  and  such  a 
garden  it  still  is,  in  spite  of  constant  desecration.  This 
is  the  home  of  the  most  poetic  of  Bernini's  fountains.  It 

[    i8i    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OP    PAPAL    ROME 

Stands  on  the  summit  of  a  rising  avenue,  yet  it  does  not 
terminate  a  vista,  it  makes  itself  a  part  of  one,  for  the 
avenue  continues  after  the  fountain  has  been  reached. 
It  stands  in  full  but  tempered  sunlight,  girt  about  by  a 
circle  of  box  hedges  and  ilex  trees,  with  here  and  there 
a  tall  stone  pine.  The  lower  basin  lies  in  the  turf,  like  a 
natural  pool,  and  the  water  fills  it  to  the  brim.  It  re- 
flects the  trees  and  clouds  in  its  quiet  depths,  or  as  the 
little  breeze  ruffles  the  surface,  it  gives  back  the  sun- 
shine like  a  broken  mirror.  Single  shafts  of  water, 
spouting  upward  from  between  the  forefeet  of  the  sea- 
horses, fall  back  into  the  same  basin  from  which  they 
rose,  curving  like  the  arches  of  a  pergola;  yet  so  steady 
is  their  flow  that  the  tranquillity  of  the  pool  is  hardly 
troubled.  Four  foam-flecked  circles,  only,  show  where 
the  falling  water  mingles  with  the  water  at  rest. 
Greater  peacefulness  could  not  well  be  given  to  any 
artificial  bit  of  water.  Then  from  the  centre  of  this 
dreaming  pool  there  rises  a  fountain  so  rich  in  carving, 
so  beautiful  in  design  that  it  seems  rather  a  great  and 
splendid  efflorescence  than  the  work  of  men's  hands. 
From  its  leaf-fringed  lower  basin  there  rises  a  second 
and  much  smaller  one,  not  hke  another  basin  but  like  a 
corolla  within  a  corolla,  and  the  flower-like  composi- 
tion terminates  in  a  beautifully  wrought  cup  resem- 
bhng  the  blossom  of  the  campanula.  The  water  gushes 
upward  from  this  cup,  but  not  to  any  height.  It  falls 
back  at  once  over  the  scalloped  edges  of  the  marble, 
and  shpping  in  and  over  the  carved  foliage  of  the  lower 
basins  finaUy  reaches,  in  a  gentle,  pensive  manner,  the 

[    182    ] 


The  Fountain  of  the  Sea-Horses. 


VILLA    BORGHESE 

quiet  pool  beneath.  Sea-horses  with  tossed  manes  and 
backward  curving  wings  plunge  outward  from  the 
shelter  of  the  lower  basin.  Their  tails  twine  about  its 
stem,  and  the  basin  is  close  above  their  heads,  but  it 
does  not  rest  upon  them;  they  are  free.  It  is  evident 
that  in  one  more  spring  they  will  be  out  and  away. 
Yet  they  do  not  take  it,  and  they  never  will.  For  once 
Bernini's  genius  masters  his  fancy.  His  fountain  is  not 
a  fanciful  conceit  but  a  rich  and  peaceful  artistic  crea- 
tion. An  enchanter's  wand  has  checked  the  horses  in 
mid-career,  and  here  they  remain,  motionless,  for  all 
their  movement,  under  the  shadow  of  the  leafy  basin, 
part  of  a  beautiful  whole  that  must  never  be  broken. 
This  is  one  of  those  rare  compositions  in  which  the  art- 
ist has  most  happily  achieved  the  second  essential  in  a 
fountain,  that  it  should  be  a  thing  of  beauty,  a  source 
of  dehght  to  the  eye  and  ear.  It  is  admirably  suited  to 
its  surroundings,  for  rich  carving  and  imaginative 
sculpture  held  in  subservience  to  the  natural  charm  of 
quiet  water,  conform  exquisitely  with  a  garden  where 
stately  formahty  enhances  the  loveliness  of  wild  and 
simple  beauty.  The  fountain  is  of  travertine,  the  natu- 
ral mellow  tone  of  which  has  been  rendered  even  more 
lovely  by  centuries  of  soft  Itahan  weather.  It  does  not 
stand  out  conspicuously  in  the  vista;  it  detaches  itself 
from  the  surrounding  trees  gently,  as  if  it  had  grown 
there  among  them. 

On  either  side  of  this  fountain  the  ground  falls  away 
sharply  into  groves  of  ilex,  traversed  by  natural  foot- 
paths. In  the  gloom  of  these  wooded  spaces  there  are 

[    i85    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

two  other  fountains.  Great  basins  catching  the  water 
from  tiers  of  smaller  ones  in  the  centre  and  each  sur- 
rounded by  a  broken  circle  of  curved  stone  benches. 
They  are  the  work  of  Antonio  Vansantio;  and,  ac- 
cording to  drawings  by  Letarouilly,  the  back  of  each 
semicircular  bench  was  originally  decorated  at  reg- 
ular intervals  with  statues.  Behind  these  stood  a 
formally  clipped  box  hedge  rising  some  three  feet 
above  the  benches,  while  the  larger  trees  growing 
behind  the  hedge  made  by  their  branches  a  green 
canopy  to  this  truly  charming  bit  of  garden  archi- 
tecture. Vansantio's  basins  and  benches  are  now  in  a 
half-ruined  condition,  but  they  are  still  extremely 
lovely  and  suggest  pictures  of  eighteenth-centm'y  gar- 
den-parties, where  groups  of  Watteau's  figmres  idle 
away  the  hours.  The  fountains  are  hardly  visible,  even 
at  close  range.  They  betray  themselves  by  the  sound  of 
their  falling  water,  which  gives  to  the  scene,  like  the 
song  of  the  hermit-thrush,  a  poignant  sense  of  remote- 
ness and  solitude.  The  deep  shadows  and  half-hidden 
waters  of  Vansantio's  fountains  form  a  well-conceived 
contrast  to  Bernini's  sunUt  basins  on  the  slope  above. 
There  are  many  other  fountains  in  this  villa.  A  large 
round  pool  decorated  with  a  central  figure  of  a  nymph, 
and  set  about  with  huge  cactus-filled  vases  of  a  shape 
peculiar  to  the  Villa  Borghese,  stands  behind  the  Ca- 
sino, while  at  the  other  end  of  the  gardens  the  so-called 
Fountain  of  Esculapius  fills  a  shady  place  with  the 
sound  and  beauty  of  abundant  water.  This  is  a  beau- 
tiful fountain,  not  because  of  any  special  charm  or 

[    i86    ] 


VILLA    BORGHESE 

originality  of  design  in  the  fountain  itself,  but  because 
of  its  splendid  jet  of  water  and  the  composition  of  it 
and  its  surroundings.  The  arch  containing  the  statue 
of  Esculapius  stands  on  a  slight  eminence  surrounded 
with  tall  trees  and  shadowy  fohage.  Beneath  and  before 
it,  the  ground  slopes  in  masses  of  broken  rock  and 
bowlders,  and  the  fountain,  a  single  round  and  shallow 
vase  of  finished  travertine,  stands  in  the  midst  of  them. 
The  jet  of  water  almost  tops  the  Arch  above  the  statue, 
and  it  falls  in  great  abundance  upon  the  rocks  at  its 
base. 

There  is  also  the  Fountain  of  the  Amorini — so  dain- 
tily lovely  that  the  fact  that  it  is  incomplete  is  hardly 
noticed.  The  little  Loves  still  firmly  grasp  their  frogs 
and  dolphins,  but  the  vase  they  once  carried  on  their 
heads  is  gone.  The  moss-grown  stone- work  of  the  basin, 
and  the  light  and  shade  of  the  great  ilex  trees  about  it 
give  this  Uttle  fountain  a  pecuHar  charm.  It  seems  to 
belong  quite  consciously  to  other  days  than  ours. 

There  are  fountains  everywhere  in  the  gardens.  They 
are  as  common  as  the  trees  and  the  marbles  and  the 
violets.  The  water  seems  to  play  at  will  among  the 
lights  and  shadows,  for  during  three  centuries  this  has 
been  a  Roman  pleasure-ground;  and  to  the  Roman  no 
pleasure-ground  is  worthy  the  name  without  the  sound 
and  sight  of  water. 

The  Villa  Borghese  was  created  by  Cardinal  Scipi- 
one  Borghese  during  the  sixteen  years  that  his  uncle 
held  the  keys  of  St.  Peter,  under  the  title  of  Paul  V. 
The  Pope  assisted  him  in  every  way,  for  Paul  V's  chief 

[    187    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

pleasure  consisted  in  advancing  and  aggrandizing  his 
family.  Marc  Antonio  Borghese,  a  second  nephew  of 
his,  became  the  founder  of  the  family  in  Rome,  and 
Cardinal  Scipione  had  as  commanding  an  influence 
over  the  Pope  as  had  ever  been  known.  Paul  V  found 
his  model  in  Paul  III,  and  so  well  did  he  emulate  the 


founder  of  the  Farnese  fortunes  that  by  the  close  of  his 
pontificate  the  Borghese  had  become  the  wealthiest  and 
most  powerful  family  that  had  ever  arisen  in  Rome. 
Cardinal  Scipione's  annual  income  alone  was  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  scudi — about  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  dollars — and  Paul  V  destroyed  the 
ruins  of  the  Baths  of  Constantine  so  as  to  build  for 
him  what  is  now  called  the  Rospigliosi  Palace.  Their 
habits,  charities,  possessions  were  all  but  regal.  The  car- 

[    i88    ] 


VILLA    BORGHESE 

dinal  endeavored  to  lessen  the  envy  which  such  opu- 
lence naturally  aroused  by  a  complaisant  and  courtly 
behavior,  as  weU  as  by  benevolence;  and  he  earned  for 
himself  the  sobriquet  of  "the  deUght  of  Rome."  This 
villa  he  laid  out  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  and  it 
has  really  existed  for  them  for  over  three  hundred 
years.  Paul  V's  pontificate  came  to  an  end  in  162 1,  and 
in  1645  Mr.  John  Evelyn  writes  in  his  "Diary"  a  long 
account  of  the  Villa  Borghese.  The  groves  and  avenues 
had  by  that  time  a  generation's  growth,  but  the  Casino 
and  httle  temples  and  the  multifarious  dehghts  which 
enriched  them  were  still  in  pristine  freshness.  The 
taste  of  the  present  day  may  prefer  the  gardens  as  they 
now  are  to  those  of  i645;  they  have  more  of  natural 
beauty  and  fewer  artificial  devices,  and  the  simple 
fountains  are  more  effective  than  the  spouts  of  water 
made  to  resemble  the  shapes  of  vessels  and  fruits  and 
the  conceit  of  artificial  rain.  Much  of  the  architecture 
and  statuary  Evelyn  describes  has  vanished,  but 
enough  remains  for  the  present  traveller  to  recognize 
the  picture  and  to  feel  that  he  is  walking  in  groves  and 
meadows  trodden  by  many  feet  through  many  years. 
,  Since  Evelyn's  time  eight  generations  have  also  found 
these  pleasure-grounds  dehghtful.  As  full  of  memories 
as  of  fragrance,  these  gardens  convey  a  sense  of  human 
life  once  lived  among  them  and  now  forever  gone, 
which  is  as  poignant  as  the  smell  of  the  boxwood  hedges 
in  the  hot  sunshine. 

The  Villa  Borghese  has  pre-eminently  this  subtle 
quahty,  and  therefore  it  has  become  the  loveliest  as 

[    189    1 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

well  as  the  best  beloved  of  all  Roman  villas;  and  it  is 
precisely  because  it  is  a  Roman  garden  that  its  mem- 
ories are  so  compelling.  The  men  and  women  who  have 
walked  in  these  long  avenues  and  lingered  about  these 
fountains  have  been  the  aristocracy  of  mankind.  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Germany  come  here  to  gather  mem- 
ories of  their  great  men.  Statues  to  Goethe  and  Victor 
Hugo  are  not  needed.  Hugo  and  Goethe  and  many  more 
of  these  noble  ghosts  come  back,  together  with  a  long 
Une  of  splendid  popes  and  brilliant  cardinals,  to  haunt 
the  sun-warmed  yet  shadowy  places,  never  jostling  or 
disturbing  the  living  but  felt  by  the  living  in  some 
strange  and  undefinable  way. 

These  groves  and  fountains  have  been  the  setting 
for  many  scenes  in  Life's  dramas.  There  has  been  a 
Napoleonic  interlude  with  dancing,  masquerading,  and 
somewhat  boisterous  merrymaking;  and  here,  amid 
the  loveliness  of  an  alien  civilization,  began  the  last 
act  in  the  tragedy  of  the  Stuart  Kings.  The  son  of  the 
exiled  James  H  of  England  lived  and  died  in  Rome,  and 
his  children — Prince  Charhe  and  the  Kttle  Duke  of 
York — played  beneath  these  trees,  as  scores  of  other 
brothers  of  less  fateful  history  have  played  before  and . 
since.*  Here  they  came  every  morning  with  their  fowl- 

*The  "Memoirs  of  Madame  d'Arblay"  relate  a  touching  incident 
in  the  life  of  this  exiled  Stuart. 

Daddy  Crump,  Fanny  Bumey's  old  gossip,  while  sojourning  in  Rome 
attended  a  camivEd  ball  at  a  certain  palace,  where  he  saw  many  nota- 
bles, among  them  King  James  III,  as  he  was  always  called  in  Rome, 
and  his  two  young  sons — Prince  Charles  Exiward  and  Henry,  Duke  of 
York.  There  were  numbers  of  English  among  the  guests,  and,  charac- 
teristically, they  did  not  mingle  with  the  other  nationalities,  but  grouped 

I     190     ] 


The  Fountain  of  the  AmorinL 


VILLA    BORGHESE 

ing-pieces.  High-spirited  English  lads,  they  made  of 
the  Italian  groves  a  Sherwood  Forest  of  their  own.  It 
was  a  far  cry  at  that  time  to  Culloden,  and  a  long  way 
to  the  cathedral  of  Frascati,  where  the  yomiger  brother 
was  to  read  the  funeral  service  over  the  elder.  Time 
means  so  Kttle  in  Rome  that  here  in  the  villa  where  the 
Stuart  Princes  played,  the  "adventure  of  the  '45" 
seems  to  have  happened  only  yesterday. 

The  villa  is  at  its  loveUest  in  May  and  October.  On 
every  Thursday  and  Sunday  of  this  latter  month  it 
used  to  be  the  custom  for  the  Prince  Borghese  to  re- 
ceive all  Rome  within  his  gates.  Forty  to  fifty  thousand 
people  would  sometimes  come  to  these  garden-parties, 
all  classes  mingling  yet  preserving  their  identity  with 
the  admirable  dignity  and  self-respect  of  the  Romans. 
The  young  Princess  GwendoUn  Borghese  was  seen  for 
the  last  time  at  one  of  these  great  fetes.  Her  saintly 
young  spirit  adds  a  breath  as  of  incense  to  the  Bor- 
ghese gardens,  and  it  is  more  easy  to  think  of  her  pres- 
ence here  than  among  the  ponderous  marbles  of  the 
Borghese  Chapel  in  Santa  Maria  Maggiore  where  she 
lies  buried. 

Yet  another  Princess  Borghese  has  left  her  memory 

themselves  together  in  a  soUd  mass  at  one  end  of  the  ballroom. 
Suddenly,  while  all  were  watching  the  dsmcers.  King  James,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  his  mask  and  oflBcial  incognito,  crossed  the  room  and  placed 
himself  in  the  front  rank  of  his  fellow  countrymen.  The  moment  was 
psychic,  but  the  "  loyal  subjects  of  the  House  of  Hanover  "  "  took  not  the 
slightest  notice  of  him  "  while  he  stood  as  his  forebears  had  stood — an 
English  king  among  his  own  people.  Daddy  Crump  relates  with  smug 
satisfaction  that  the  "ElngUsh  never  moved  an  eyelid"  during  those 
few  minutes  when  their  hereditary  sovereign  assuaged  the  passionate 
homesickness  of  his  exile  heart  with  a  brief  emd  trsigic  make-believe. 

[     193     ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

within  these  gates.  Canova  has  portrayed  her  as  Venus 
Victrix,  and  she  takes  her  place  among  the  antique 
marbles  by  the  right  of  flawless  beauty.  The  flesh-and- 
blood  original  of  Canova's  masterpiece,  Pauline  Bona- 
parte, Princess  Borghese,  cared  but  Uttle  for  her  beau- 
tiful villa.  The  ilex  groves  were  gloomy  and  the  foun- 
tains were  insignificant  compared  with  those  of  Ver- 
sailles. She  wearied  of  palace,  prince,  and  villa,  and 
spent  as  much  time  as  possible  with  her  own  kin.  It  is 
recorded  that  the  prince,  her  husband,  was  far  more 
jealous  of  Canova's  statue  of  his  wife  than  of  his  wife's 
person.  The  Princess  Pauline  Borghese  passed  away 
like  a  summer  cloud,  but  the  Venus  Borghese  remains. 
The  personality  of  Cardinal  Scipione  Borghese  is 
preserved  in  the  two  magnificent  busts  still  standing  in 
the  picture-gallery  of  the  Casino.  It  is  difficult  to  be- 
Heve  that  such  vitafity  as  Bernini  has  here  portrayed 
could  ever  have  quite  faded  from  the  earth,  and  surely 
his  ghost  must  at  times  return  to  these  gardens  of  his 
creation. 


[    194    ] 


LA    BARCACCIA 


LA    BARCACCIA 

At  the  foot  of  the  great  stone  stairway,  known  in  Ital- 
ian as  La  Scalinata  and  in  English  as  the  Spanish  Steps, 
which  leads  down  from  the  Church  of  the  Trinita  de' 
Monti  to  the  Piazza  di  Spagna  lies  the  singular  foun- 
tain called  La  Barcaccia.  The  design  of  this  fountain  is 
that  of  a  quaintly  conventionahzed  boat,  fast  sinking 
under  the  water  which  is  pouring  into  it.  To  this  effect 
it  owes  its  name;  for  "barca,"  being  the  Itahan  for 
boat,  and  "accia"  a  termination  of  opprobrium,  Bar- 
caccia means  a  worthless  boat.  The  boat  is  supposed  to 

[    197    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

commemorate  an  event  which  occurred  during  the 
great  flood  of  iBgS.  On  Christmas  Day  of  that  year  the 
Tiber  rose  to  its  highest  recorded  level.  All  this  part  of 
the  city  was  submerged  to  a  depth  of  from  seventeen 
to  twenty-five  feet;  and  here  in  the  Piazza  di  Spagna  a 
boat  drifted  ashore,  grounding  on  that  slope  of  the  Pin- 
cian  Hill,  which  is  now  covered  by  the  Spanish  Steps. 
For  a  long  time  the  design  of  this  fountain  was  sup- 
posed to  commemorate  this  event,  and  it  is  quite  pos- 
sible that  this  may  have  been  the  case.  Still  there  are 
other  fountains  of  this  design,  the  work  of  Carlo  Ma- 
demo,  and  as  one  is  in  the  Villa  d'Este  at  Tivoli  and 
the  other  in  the  Villa  Aldobrandini,  it  is  also  quite  pos- 
sible that  Carlo  Mademo  and  the  creator  of  the  Bar- 
caccia  may  have  had  yet  another  idea  when  they  con- 
structed their  stone  boats  with  a  fountain  amidships 
and  lying  in  basins  not  much  larger  than  the  boats 
themselves.  For  the  Romans  of  this  time  knew  much 
and  surmised  still  more  about  the  mysterious  boats  ly- 
ing at  the  bottom  of  Lake  Nemi,  in  the  Alban  Hills, 
not  more  than  seventeen  miles  distant  from  Rome. 
These  boats  had  been  discovered  first  during  the  pon- 
tificate of  Pope  Eugenius  IV,  and  had  been  rediscov- 
ered in  Paul  Hi's  time,  in  i535,  or  about  a  hundred 
years  before  Carlo  Maderno  employed  this  design  for  a 
fountain.  At  each  date  an  attempt  had  been  made  to 
raise  the  boats,  but  these  efforts  as  well  as  all  subse- 
quent attempts  proved  unsuccessful.  However,  in  i535 
measurements  had  been  computed  and  many  objects 
belonging  to  the  vessels  had  been  brought  to  the  sur- 

[    198    ] 


LA    BARCACCIA 

face  to  excite  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  the  Roman 
world.  It  was  discovered  that  the  boats  when  once 
raised  and  floated  would  all  but  fill  the  tiny  lake.  The 
decks  had  been  made  of  concrete  and  marble,  and 
amidships  there  had  been  fountains  whose  faUing 
waters  mingled  with  those  of  the  lake.  The  mystery 
surrounding  the  purpose  and  construction  of  those 
huge  vessels  is  yet  unsolved,  but  in  the  seventeenth 
century  it  still  stirred  men's  imaginations  with  all  the 
force  of  fresh  discovery.  Both  Mademo  and  Pietro 
Bernini  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  it,  and  they 
must  have  seen  the  exquisite  bronzes  and  lead  pipes 
bearing  the  stamp  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius  which  had 
been  detached  and  brought  up  from  the  sunken  vessels. 
The  Barcaccia  fountain  is  the  last  work  of  Pietro 
Bernini,  the  father  of  Lorenzo.  He  had  been  employed 
to  bring  a  branch  of  the  Trevi  Water  from  its  reservoir 
at  the  head  of  the  Vicolo  del  Bottino  as  far  as  the  foot 
of  the  Pincian  Hill  in  front  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti, 
and  the  fountain  done  by  order  of  Pope  Urban  VHI 
( 1 628-1 644)  was  the  adequate  consummation  of  that 
work.  From  whatever  cause  he  derived  his  inspiration, 
his  design  of  the  Barcaccia  fountain  "is  so  admirably 
suited  to  its  position  that  it  explains  and  almost  ex- 
cuses the  popular  idea  that  the  fountain  was  made  low 
in  order  not  to  obscure  the  view  of  the  Spanish  Steps. 
A  reference  to  dates  at  once  shows  the  absurdity  of  this 
last  suggestion.  In  the  Keats  Memorial  House  hard  by 
there  can  be  seen  an  engraving  by  Falda  (bom  in  i64o) 
showing  Pietro  Bernini's  completed  fountain  against 

[    199    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OP  PAPAL  ROME 

the  background  of  the  tree-planted  slope  of  the  Pin- 
cian  Hill.  The  fountain  was  finished  before  the  death 
of  Pope  Urban  VIII,  which  occurred  in  i644,  and  the 
steps  were  not  begun  until  1721,  nine  pontificates  after 
that  of  Urban  VIII. 

On  the  prow  and  stem  of  the  boat  is  carved  the 
coat  of  arms  of  the  Barberini  family,  for  Urban  VIII 
was  the  Barberini  Pope  and  the  founder  of  that  family 
in  Rome.  This  pontiff,  whose  character  was  a  formi- 
dable compound  of  priest,  statesman,  warrior,  and  man 
of  letters,  delighted  in  the  design  of  the  fountain.  Pie- 
tro  Bernini  had  placed  cannon  at  either  end,  thus  mak- 
ing his  boat  into  a  war-vessel,  whereupon  Urban  VIII 
composed  a  Latin  distich  in  its  praise: 

"Bellica  pontificum  non  fundit  machina  flammas, 
Sed  dulcem,  belh  qua  perit  ignis,  aquam." 

*'  The  war-ship  of  the  priest,  instead  of  flames  ^ 
Pours  water,  and  the  fire  of  battle  tames.*' 

At  both  ends  of  the  large  basin  in  which  the  boat 
stands  are  long,  flat  pieces  of  travertine.  These  are  the 
stepping-stones  on  which  any  one  using  the  fountain 
stands  while  dipping  up  the  water.  The  Marcia  Pia 
now  supplies  the  houses  in  this  part  of  the  city,  but  the 
Romans  still  prefer  to  drink  Trevi,  and  the  stepping- 
stones  are  as  much  in  use  as  they  were  in  the  days  when 
Falda  and  other  artists  of  that  period  engraved  this 
fountain,  placing  in  the  lower  basin  figures  of  men  or 
women  in  the  act  of  dipping  up  the  water.  This  quarter 

[    200    ] 


LA    BARCACCIA 

of  Rome,  once  a  part  of  the  Campus  Martius  of  clas- 
sical days,  has  been  for  a  long  time  given  over  to  the 
interests  of  the  American  and  English  colonies;  but  for 
more  than  three  centuries  its  foreign  associations  were 
chiefly  French.  Urban  VIII  was  in  many  ways  a  French 
Pope,  although  he  came  of  a  Florentine  family.  As 
papal  nuncio  he  had  spent  many  years  and  made 
many  powerful  friends  at  the  courts  of  Henry  IV  and 
Louis  XIII.  In  the  conclave  which  elected  him  Pope, 
France  openly  and  ardently  supported  his  claims.  Dur- 
ing his  residence  in  France  he  had  known  Armand  du 
Plessis,  who  was  to  become  Cardinal  Richeheu.  The 
two  great  churchmen  went  up  the  ladder  of  preferment 
side  by  side.  They  became,  as  pope  and  cardinal  min- 
ister, respectively,  lifelong  aUies  in  their  tireless  and 
successful  efforts  to  himible  the  dual  power  of  Austria 
and  Spain,  while  promoting  on  the  one  hand  the  pres- 
tige of  France  and  on  the  other  the  stabiUty  of  the 
Papal  See. 

At  the  accession  of  Urban  VIII,  Spain  and  Austria 
held  the  passes  of  the  Alps,  thus  dominating  Europe 
and  threatening  the  existence  of  the  Papal  States.  At 
the  close  of  his  pontificate,  France  was  rapidly  becom- 
ing the  first  Continental  power,  and  the  Papal  States 
had  reached  their  utmost  limit  of  territorial  expansion. 
With  his  death  the  French  influence  in  papal  pohtics 
rapidly  decUned,  but  its  artistic  ascendency  still  fin- 
gered on.  Thirteen  years  later  a  certain  French  gentle- 
man, attached  to  the  French  embassy  at  Rome,  and 
named  Etienne  de  Guejffier,  left  in  his  wiU  a  sum  of 

[     20I     ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

money  for  the  construction  of  a  great  stone  stairway 
which  should  connect  the  Piazza  of  the  Trinita  de* 
Monti,  in  the  centre  of  which  lay  the  Barcaccia  foun- 
tain, with  the  Church  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti,  stand- 
ing far  above,  on  the  slope  of  the  Pincian  Hill.  This 
gentleman,  of  whom  Uttle  is  known,  must  have  been 
the  friend  of  more  than  one  of  the  great  French  artists 
who  were  living  in  Rome  contemporaneously  with  him- 
self. Possibly  the  splendid  project  of  the  Scalinata  was 
the  result  of  long  hours  of  comradeship,  when  he,  with 
his  fellow  countrymen,  watched  the  sunset  from  the 
terrace  which  Sixtus  V  had  placed  before  the  Church 
on  the  Hill,  or  scrambled  down  the  tree-planted  slope 
before  it  in  order  to  reach  the  fountain  at  its  base.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  Rome  owes  this  most  distinctive  archi- 
tectural feature  of  papal  times  to  the  imagination  and 
generosity  of  a  Frenchman.  The  two  Latin  inscriptions 
upon  the  steps  are  worthy  of  attention.* 

The  building  of  the  steps,  begun  by  Alessandro 
Specchi  and  completed  by  Francesco  de  Sanctis,  was 
not  undertaken,  as  appears  from  the  inscription,  till 
sixty  years  after  the  death  of  De  Gueffier  and  six  pon- 
tificates later  than  that  of  Alexander  VH  (Chigi),  in 
which  De  Gueffier  died.  By  that  time  the  Spanish  in- 
fluence had  reasserted  itself  to  a  marked  degree,  and  as 
the  Spanish  embassy  had  been  estabhshed  in  a  palace 
on  the  western  side  of  the  square,  the  old  name  of  the 
Piazza  della  Trinita  de'  Monti  gradually  gave  way  to 
the  present  name.  Piazza  di  Spagna.  And  so  finally  the 

*  See  Appendix. 
[     202     ] 


LA    BARCACCIA 

great  stone  stairway,  the  gift  of  a  Frenchman  in  the 
heyday  of  French  influence  at  Rome,  came  to  be  known 
as  the  Spanish  Steps. 

Yet,  after  all,  the  paramount  association  with  the 
fountain  of  the  Barcaccia  is  neither  French  nor  Span- 
ish, but  belongs  pre-eminently  to  the  Enghsh-speaking 
race.  This  fantastic  fountain,  with  its  commonplace 
background  and  its  limited  view  of  the  ScaUnata,  forms 
the  only  outlook  from  the  windows  of  the  house  in 
which  the  poet  Keats  spent  the  last  three  months  of 
his  hfe;  so  that  from  the  position  of  this  house  the 
fountain  of  the  Barcaccia  is  connected  for  all  time  with 
the  fate  of  the  "young  Enghsh  poet"  who  Kes  buried 
now  these  many  years  in  the  Protestant  cemetery  out- 
side the  walls.  From  the  windows  of  his  narrow  death- 
chamber  he  watched  the  plashing  waters  in  the  foun- 
tain below  him,  while  above  his  head  the  bells  in  the 
church,  which  he  could  not  see,  remorselessly  rang  out 
the  quarter-hours  or  tolled  for  some  feUow  creature 
the  "agonia,"  or  "passing  bell."  During  his  hours  of 
hstlessness  or  fits  of  sombre  rage,  this  passing  of  time 
and  of  life  was  always  in  his  ears,  as  the  futile  play  of 
the  water  was  always  before  his  eyes. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  connect  the  bells  and  the  foun- 
tain with  the  bitter  epitaph  written,  by  his  own  wish, 
above  his  grave: 

"Here  lies  one  whose  name  was  writ  in  water." 


[    2o3    ] 


TRITON 


TRITON 


"Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea, 
And  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn." 

The  exquisite  lines  rise  involuntarily  to  the  lips  as  one 
comes  suddenly  upon  Bernini's  old  fountain  in  the  Pi- 
azza Tritone,  which,  standing  in  the  centre  of  one  of 
the  busiest  and  most  prosaic  thoroughfares  of  modern, 
Rome,  still  keeps  its  own  quahty  of  beauty  and  seems 
to  weave  about  itself  the  enchantment  of  the  world  of 
fable.  Roman  art  has  created  many  Tritons,  notably 
the  joyous  group  surrounding  Galatea  in  the  Farnesina 
[    207    1 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

Palace,  but  there  is  about  this  water-worn  old  figure 
such  distinction  and  such  emphasis  of  life  that  he  be- 
comes the  prototype  of  all  his  race.  He  is  II  Tritone^ 
/  Triton  blows  his  conch-shell  with  all  his  might  as  he 
/  kneels  across  the  hinge  of  a  wide-open  scallop-shell, 
'  which  is  supported  on  the  upturned  tails  of  three  dol- 
phins massed  together  in  the  middle  of  a  large,  low- 
lying  basin.  The  dolphins*  tails  are  twisted  and  folded 
about  large  papal  keys — a  Bernini  conceit  which,  sug- 
\  gesting  St.  Peter  both  as  fisherman  and  pontifiF,  must 
have  deUghted  the  Pope.  The  composition  of  dolphins, 
keys,  and  shell  is  extraordinarily  rich  and  harmonious. 
Triton,  kneeling  upon  this  noble  support  is,  from  the 
waist  upward,  a  severely  simple  figure,  almost  uncouth 
and  somewhat  out  of  keeping  with  the  rest  of  the  de- 
sign. This  effect  is  entirely  accidental.  It  has  been 
brought  about  by  the  ceaseless  flow  of  the  water,  which 
for  two  and  a  half  centuries  has  been  thrown  upward  in 
a  slender  jet  of  great  height,  returning  upon  itself  with 
such  precision  that  Triton's  face  and  shoulders  have 
been  worn  and  blurred  into  shapeless  surfaces  of  trav- 
ertine. Triton  has  suffered  from  a  sculptor's  point  of 
'view,  but  as  a  work  of  imaginative  art  it  is,  perhaps, 
all  the  better  for  Nature's  modelling.  The  shapeless 
head  and  shoulders  have  in  them  something  of  the 
formlessness  and  blurred  masses  of  the  elements,  and 
the  water-creature  becomes  more  real  to  the  imagina- 
tion in  proportion  ^  he  suggests — ^but  does  not  entirely 
resemble — a  man.  The  entire  design  is  on  a  colossal 
scale  and  has  a  dignity  and  harmony  rarely  to  be  found 

r  208  1 


The  Fountain  of  the  Triton. 


TRITON 

in  Bernini's  creations.  This  is  because  the  central  idea 
is  the  only  idea,  and  no  subsidiary  and  fantastic  inven- 
tions are  presented  to  bewilder  the  eye  and  brain. 

This  fountain  wasjdonfiJby  Lorenzo  Bernini  for  Popft 
Urban  VIII.  It  stands  near  the  Barberini  Church  of  q       -h/^ {?<f^ 
the  Capuchins,  and  was  intended  to  adorn  the  approach  y^ 

~^  the  Palazzo  Barberini.  This  third  of  the  trio  of  the 
great  palaces  of  the  nepotizing  Popes — Famese,  Bor- 
ghese,  and  Barberini — ^was  built  by  Urban  VIII  in 
order  to  invest  his  house  with  an  importance  equal  to 
that  enjoyed  by  the  famihes  of  Paul  III  and  Paul  V.. 
As  the  fountain  was  an  adjunct  of  the  palace,  it  had  \ 
to  bear  upon  it  in  some  way  the  emblem  of  the  Bar-  \ 
berini — the  colossal  bee — and  this  explains  why  Ber- 
nini united  the  curving  bodies  of  his  dolphins  by  ea-    1 

vCutcheons  carrying  three  bees  and  the  papal  arms.       / 

Another  fountain,  contemporaneous  with  the  Tri- 
ton, once  stood  in  this  same  piazza,  at  the  comer  of 
the  Via  Sistina;  and  this  fountain,  also  made  for  Urban 
VIII  by  Bernini,  was  in  itself  the  emblem  of  the  Bar- 
berini, for  it  represented  merely  a  great  shell  into  which 
the  bees  spouted  water.  In  some  way  this  second  foun- 
tain has  disappeared,  but  the  piazza  still  remains  the 
Barberini  quarter  of  the  city ;  and  the  Triton,  as  well  as 
the  magnificent  palace,  recalls  the  days  when  the  power 
and  rapacity  of  that  family  brought  upon  it  the  unfor- 
getable  pasquinade: 

"What  the  Barbarians  spared, 
The  Barberini  took." 

[      211      ] 


NAVONA 


NAVONA 

Before  the  genius  of  Valadier  moulded  the  isolated 
buildings  and  waste  spaces  of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo 
into  a  noble  symmetry,  the  Navona  was  considered  the 
finest  and  most  important  piazza  in  Rome.  In  length 
and  breadth  it  is  a  reproduction  of  the  stadium  of 
Domitian,  for  the  houses,  churches,  and  palaces  which 
Hue  the  Piazza  Navona  are  based  squarely  upon  the 
seats  and  corridors  of  that  old  Roman  playground. 
This  part  of  the  city,  not  far  from  the  Pantheon  or  old 
Baths  of  Agrippa,  is  low,  and  it  has  always  been  easy 
I     2l5    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

to  flood  it  with  water.  The  ancient  Romans  were  so 
keen  for  shows  of  every  kind  that  when  the  great  Fla- 
vian amphitheatre  (the  CoHseum)  was  closed  for  re- 
pairs, Domitian  fomid  it  necessary  to  provide  a  second 
place  of  amusement  where  the  gladiatorial  combats  and 
the  naumachise  or  sea  fights  could  go  on  without  inter- 
ruption. 

It  was  a  rule  strictly  enforced  under  the  empire  that 
no  one  could  open  new  baths  in  the  city  without  pro- 
viding a  fresh  supply  of  water.  Something  more  than  a 
century  after  Domitian,  Alexander  Severus — ^having 
brought  the  Acqua  Alessandrina  to  Rome — ^was  able  to 
repair  Domitian's  old  stadium  and  to  use  it  once  more 
for  the  naumachise.  In  modem  times  there  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  any  fountain  here  until  the  pontifi- 
cate of  Gregory  XIII,  and  at  that  time  the  passion 
for  fountain-building  in  modem  Rome  really  began. 

Pius  rV,  the  Pope  last  but  one  preceding  Gregory 
XIII,  had  repaired  the  old  aqueduct  of  the  Acqua 
Virgo,  originally  brought  to  the  city  by  Marcus 
Agrippa,  the  son-in-law  of  Augustus,  so  that  that  wa- 
ter, which  for  a  long  time  had  been  running  only  inter- 
mittently in  the  fountain  of  Trevi,  could  now  be  ob- 
tained in  a  continuous  stream.  It  is  impossible  to  throw 
Virgo  Water  to  any  great  height,  and  the  fountains  of 
the  Piazza  Navona  have  had  to  be  constructed  with 
reference  to  this  limitation. — — "  "" 

The  two  end  fountains,  designed  for  Gregory  XIII 
by  Giacomo  della  Porta,  are  simply  great  basins  of 
Porta  Santa  marble  standing  in  still  larger  Carrara 

[    216    ] 


The  Fountain  of  the  Four  Rivers. 


,  / 


\ 


NAVONA 

basins  of  exactly  the  same  shape  and  sunk  into  the 
ground.  The  beauty  of  these  fountains  consists  in  their 
elegant  shape,  the  fineness  of  the  marble,  and  in  their 
air  of  simple  distinction.  The  great  basins  hold  the  lim- 
pid Trevi  Water  as  a  Venetian  goblet  holds  wine:  the 
receptacle  and  that  which  it  contains  enhance  each 
other's  beauty,  and  any  further  decoration  seems  su- 
perfluous and  unfortunate.  This,  however,  was  not  the 
taste  of  the  seventeenth  century,  at  which  time  there 
were  added  the  various  figm-es  now  crowding  the  upper 
basin  of  the  south  fountedn.  On  one  side  of  the  piazza 
stands  the  fine  palace  built  for  Innocent  X  (Pamphili, 
i644-i655)  by  Rainaldi.  It  was  occupied  during  the 
Pope's  lifetime  by  his  sister-in-law.  Donna  Olympia 
Maidalchini,  who,  for  that  period,  became  the  most 
important  person  of  the  papal  court.  She  filled  the 
palace  with  art  treasures  and,  in  order  to  make  its  ex- 
terior still  more  imposing,  Bernini  was  commissioned 
to  decorate  della  Porta's  fountain,  which  stood  directly 
in  front  of  the  palace.  The  central  figure,  called  the 
Moor,  was  modelled  by  Bernini  himself,  and  it  was 
sculptured  for  him  by  Gianantonio  Mari.  It  is  in 
travertine.  The  Carrara  masques  and  marine  crea- 
tm-es  are  by  various  pupils  of  Bernini.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  last  century  the  originals  of  these  side 
groups,  which  had  become  badly  disfigured,  were 
removed  and  replaced  by  those  of  the  present  day, 
which  were  sculptured  by  Amici  after  the  old  models. 
This  fountain  since  Bernini's  time  has  been  called  the 
fountain  of  the  Moor.  The  fountain  at  the  other  end 
[    219    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

went  from  the  earliest  times  by  the  name  of  the  Fomi- 
tain  of  the  Scaldino,  probably  because  of  the  shape  of 
the  small  vase  in  the  centre  which  resembled  a  classic 
scaldino  or  brazier.  It  can  be  seen  in  an  engraving  by 
Piranesi,  for  the  fountain  was  left  undisturbed  until 
the  close  of  the  last  century  when  the  Scaldino  was  re- 
moved and  replaced  by  the  figure  of  Neptune.  This  fig- 
ure was  carved  by  Bitta  Zappala  from  a  model  of  Ber- 
nini's found  in  the  Villa  Montalto.  The  figures  around 
the  edge  are  Zappala's  own,  and  they  as  well  as  the 
Neptune  are  of  Carrara.  All  this  wedding-cake  decora- 
tion has  spoiled  the  original  effect  of  della  Porta*s 
work,  and  the  best  that  can  now  be  said  for  the  side 
fountains  is  that  they  are  in  harmony  with  the  foun- 
tain in  the  centre.  In  justice,  however,  to  the  genius  of 
della  Porta  and  to  the  taste  of  an  earUer  day,  an  at- 
tempt should  be  made  to  think  of  these  fountains  with- 
out their  more  modem  excrescences.  It  is  a  pity  that 
the  Roman  municipahty  has  found  it  necessary  to  sur- 
round them  with  a  high  iron  fence.  If  these  fountains 
could  be  left  free  like  the  side  fountains  in  the  Piazza 
del  Popolo  their  charm  could  be  and  would  be  much 
better  appreciated. 

In  the  centre  of  the  piazza^^DMaediately  opposite 
the  church,  Bernini  erected  for  Innocent  X'the  Foun- 
tain of  the  Four  Rivers.  The  obelisk  of  red  Oriental 
granite  which  surmounts  it  was  brought  from  the  Cir- 
cus of  Maxentius,  and  tipped  with  the  bronze  dove 
and  oHve-branch,  the  emblem  of  the  Pamphili  family, 
to  which  Innocent  X  belonged.  Bernini  placed  the  obe- 

[    220    ] 


NAVONA 

lisk  on  four  flying  buttresses  of  white  granite,  crossing 
each  other  at  right  angles.  The  obehsk  rests  upon  the 
arch  thus  formed,  and  the  space  beneath  it  is  left  as  a 
grotto  with  four  openings.  This  gives  the  obelisk  the 
appearance  of  resting  upon  nothing,  an  effect  which 
was  greatly  admired  by  the  artist's  contemporaries. 
The  bases  of  these  flying  buttresses  are  broadened  and 
flattened  so  as  to  receive  the  recumbent  figures  of  four 
river-gods  carved  in  Carrara.  They  represent  respec- 
tively the  Ganges,  the  Nile,  the  Danube,  and  the  Rio  de 
la  Plata.  The  obelisk  and  its  base  stand  in  the  centre  of 
a  basin  some  seventy-eight  feet  in  circumference,  which 
is  sunk  into  the  pavement,  and  which  receives  the 
water  flowing  from  the  four  rocky  projections  where 
the  river-gods  he.  Beneath  the  grotto  additional  jets  of 
water  spout  upward,  while  a  river-horse  dashes  furi- 
ously through  one  archway  as  if  in  terror  of  a  lion 
which  is  coming  out  of  another  to  drink  of  the  water 
under  the  shade  of  a  palm-tree  cut  in  high  rehef 
against  the  rocks.  On  top  of  one  of  the  rocks  crawls  a 
serpent,  and  a  mass  of  cactus  grows  upward  from  be- 
hind one  of  the  rivers.  In  the  lower  basin  two  mon- 
strous travertine  fish  are  disporting  themselves  in 
characteristic  Bernini  contortions.  Escutcheons  bear- 
ing the  arms  of  Leo  X  (three  fleur-de-hs  and  a  dove 
with  an  ohve-branch)  of  course  are  not  wanti'ig.  AH 
this  sculpture  is  in  travertine. 

This  fountain  has  been  caUed  Bernini's  masterpiece, 
and  it  deserves  that  title  as  an  example  of  the  utmost 
length  to  which  the  Bernini  idea  of  artistic  invention 

[     221     ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

can  be  carried.  From  an  aesthetic  standpoint  it  shows 
both  in  execution  and  design  the  faults  and  excesses 
into  which  he  was  led  by  his  popularity,  and  the  bound- 
less fertility  of  his  genius.  The  extravagances  and  ab- 
surdities of  this  fountain  and  its  debased  execution 
arouse  curiosity  both  as  to  the  artist  and  to  the  taste 
and  character  of  the  seventeenth-century  Romans  for 
whom  it  was  erected  and  by  whom  it  was  so  greatly 
admired.  Bernini  came  in  with  the  seventeenth  century 
and  lived  through  eighty  years  of  it.  The  pompous  epi- 
taph under  his  bust,  which  is  let  into  the  wall  in  the 
Palazzo  Mercede,  speaks  no  more  than  the  truth. 
Princes  and  popes  did  bend  before  him,  from  Paul  V, 
who  recognized  his  precocious  genius,  to  Louis  XIV, 
who  enticed  him  to  Paris.  Charles  I  sent  his  Van  Dyck 
portraits  to  Rome,  that  Bernini  might  use  them  as 
guides  in  making  his  portrait  bust  of  the  Stuart  King, 
and  Urban  VIII  thanked  a  gracious  Providence  that 
Bernini  Uved  during  his  pontificate.  His  journey  to 
Paris  was  a  triumphal  progress.  The  few  clouds  which 
marred  his  long  and  prosperous  day  were  due  not  to 
any  waning  of  popular  appreciation  but  to  the  inevi- 
table jealousy  of  less  fortunate  men.  Yet  his  best  work 
was  done  in  his  youth  under  the  enlightened  patronage 
of  Paul  V  and  Urban  VIII.  By  the  time  Innocent  X  (a 
mediocre  man)  could  conunand  his  services  his  faults 
had  obscured  his  genius,  and  the  great  days  of  Rome 
were  definitely  over.  With  the  death  of  Urban  VIII, 
the  Pope  immediately  preceding  Innocent  X,  the  last 
trace  of  vigorous  artistic  life  had  disappeared;  for  as 

[     222     ] 


NAVONA 

the  French  influence  in  the  papal  court  declined  and 
the  Hapsburg  ideas  regained  and  held  the  ascendancy 
spontaneous  and  free  expression  of  thought  and  feeUng 
were  rigorously  repressed.  Men  were  made  to  live  on 
the  surface  of  things,  and  in  proportion  as  they  became 
formal  and  superficial  in  themselves  they  demanded 
excitement  and  extravagance  in  their  art.  This  was  the 
secret  of  Bernini's  immense  success.  He  was  exactly 
fitted  to  his  time.  Men  wanted  "Sound  and  fury,  sig- 
nifying nothing,"  and  he  gave  it  to  them  in  full 
measure. 

^"^^k  this  fountain  he  strove  to  produce  the  effect  of  a 
wild  concourse  of  waters.  He  wished  to  reproduce  in 
stone  the  tumult  of  the  falls  of  Tivoh.  Confusion,  ra- 
pidity of  movement,  and  noise  are  the  quahties  which 
he  attempted  to  embody  in  his  sculpture.  That  the  ef- 
fect should  be  bathos  and  not  grandeur  was  inevitable. 
The  ideas  which  Bernini  strove  to  express  cannot  be 
portrayed.  Music  is  the  only  artistic  medium  by  which 
they  can  be  rendered,  and  in  looking  at  the  Bernini 
sculpture  as  well  as  architecture  it  is  impossible  not  to 
wish  that  this  artist  of  such  undeniable  genius  and  im- 
mense facihty  had  been  a  musician.  As  the  composer 
and  interpreter  of  great  hvio  music  Bernini  might  have 
given  no  less  pleasure  to  the  men  of  his  time  and 
have  secured  from  posterity  a  kindlier  appreciation.* 
But  in  the  seventeenth  century  secular  music  as  an  art 
was  stiU  in  its  infancy,  and  it  was  inevitable  that  Ber- 

*  Compare  the  sensations  produced  by  this  fountain  and  those  given 
by  the  "Rhapsodie  Hongroise." 

[      223     ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

nini  should  express  himself  in  sculpture,  or  in  the 
"frozen  music"  of  architecture.  As  the  Borgo  holds  its 
memories  of  the  Borgias,  and  the  Via  Sistina  and  its 
vicinity  recall  the  power  of  Sixtus  V,  and  the  Piazza 
di  Spagna  the  versatihty  of  Urban  VIII,  so  the  Piazza 
Navona  brings  back  the  times  of  Innocent  X.  The 
greatest  gift  which  the  Pamphih  family  has  left  to 
Rome  is  the  Villa  Pamphili,  which  was  built  by  the 
Pope's  nephew,  but  here  in  the  Piazza  Navona  stand 
the  Pamphih  Palace,  the  CoUegio  Innocentium  and  the 
Church  of  St.  Agnes,  whose  new  fagade  dates  from  his 
pontificate. 

It  was  during  his  lifetime  that  the  festas  of  the 
Lago  of  the  Piazza  Navona"  were  inaugurated. 
Every  Sunday  in  July  and  August  the  outlets  of  the 
great  central  fountain  were  stopped  and  the  water 
was  permitted  to  flood  the  entire  piazza,  which  was 
\at  that  time  much  lower  than  it  is  at  present.  Then 
the  carriages  of  the  nobihty  and  gentry  drove  around 
the  piazza,  the  water  reaching  up  as  far  as  the  middle 
of  the  smaller  wheels.  The  owners  of  the  houses  and 
palaces  invited  friends  to  witness  the  spectacle  from 
their  windows,  refreshments  were  served,  and  bands  of 
music  played  on  stands  erected  at  various  parts  of  the 
piazza.  The  fact  that  only  people  owning  carriages 
could  drive  in  the  procession  and  that  only  the  in- 
habitants of  the  houses  and  palaces  could  invite  their 
guests,  limited  the  number  and  regulated  the  quality 
of  the  participants  in  these  curious  pageants.  In  the 
earlier  days  much  Ucense  was  permitted,  and  the 

[      224     ] 


NAVONA 

entertainments  lasted  through  the  night,  but  in  Clem- 
ent XIII's  time,  or  about  1760,  the  number  of  hours 
was  curtailed.  With  the  ringing  of  the  Ave  Maria  the 
piazza  was  drained  and  the  waters  once  more  con- 
fined to  the  basin  of  Bernini's  Fountain  of  the  Four 
Rivers. 

These  harmless  midsummer  carnivals  which  came  to 
an  end  during  the  pontificate  of  Pope  Pius  IX  were  as 
much  relished  by  the  Romans  as  were  the  naumachise 
held  fourteen  hundred  years  earher  in  the  same  place. 


[    225    ] 


TREVI 


TREVI 

One  hundredand  fifteen  years  after  Agrippa  brought 
the  Acqua  Virgo  into  Rome  the  Emperor  Nerva  ap- 
pointed  as  commissioner  of  the  water-works  of  the  city 
a  man  of  extraordinary  integrity  and  energy  who  was 
possessed  of  many  accompHshments  and  had  had  along 
training  in  the  practical  experience  of  government  and 
war.  Fortunately  for  posterity,  he  was  able  to  write 
as  well  as  govern,  and  in  his  book,  "The  Water  Supply 
of  the  City  of  Rome,"  a  copy  of  which  has  been  pre- 
served in  the  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino  for  more 
[    229    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

than  thirteen  centuries,  there  is  an  account,  true  be- 
yond the  shadow  of  doubt,  of  the  earhest  history  of 
the  Trevi  Water.  Frontinus  says  that  the  water  was 
shown  to  some  Roman  soldiers  by  a  young  maiden  who 
guided  them  to  the  springs  near  her  father's  home,  that 
a  small  temple  was  erected  near  the  springs  containing 
a  picture  of  the  incident,  and  that  the  name  of  Virgo,  or 
maiden,  which  still  endures,  commemorates  the  event. 
Agrippa  at  once  brought  the  water  to  Rome  and  its 
delightful  purity  as  well  as  its  abundance  must  have 
given  it  immediate  popularity.  Suetonius  relates  that 
about  this  time  the  Romans  complained  to  Augustus 
of  the  expense  and  scarcity  of  wine,  whereupon  the 
Emperor  sent  word  to  them  that  his  son-in-law, 
Agrippa,  had  sufficiently  provided  for  their  thirst  by 
the  ample  supply  of  water  which  he  had  brought  to 
Rome.  The  springs  of  the  Virgo  rise  io-the  valley  of  the 
Anio  and afenot  more  than  eighty  feet  above  sea-level. 
They  are  on  land  which  once  belonged  to  Lucullus. 
The  veteran  adversary  of  Mithradates,  who  had  suf- 
fered all  the  privations  of  far-eastern  warfare,  knew 
from  personal  experience  the  immense  value  of  pure 
and  abundant  water.  It  is  not  improbable  that  he  was 
aware  of  his  priceless  possession  and  that  he  kept  it  for 
his  own  private  use  during  those  years  of  his  peaceful 
old  age  passed  in  his  gardens  on  the  Pincian  Hill. 
When,  a  generation  after  Lucullus's  death,  Agrippa 
constructed  the  Virgo  Aqueduct  he  brought  it  under- 
ground through  the  old  gardens  of  Lucullus  to  a  reser- 
voir  beneath   the  hill,   and   from   there   the  water 

[    23o    ] 


TREVI 

was  carried  to  the  Campus  Martius,  and  thence  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  city,  whose  gardens  and  foun- 
tains it  still  supplies.  Cassiodorus,  prime  minister  to 
that  Gothic  King,  Theodoric,  who,  from  ^qB  to  626, 
governed  the  Romans  with  such  extraordinary  sym- 
pathy and  intelligence,  felt  for  the  Virgo  Water  the 
admiration  and  love  of  a  veritable  Roman.  The  true 
origin  of  the  name  had  already  been  forgotten,  and 
Cassiodorus  supposes  that  "Virgo's  stream  is  so  pure 
that  the  name,  according  to  conmaon  opinion,  is  de- 
rived from  the  fact  that  those  waters  are  never  suUied, 
since,  while  all  the  others  give  evidence  of  the  violence 
of  rain-storms  by  the  turgidity  of  their  waters,  Virgo 
alone  ever  maintains  her  purity."  It  was  quite  a  nat- 
m'al  supposition,  for  the  Virgo  Water  has  never  had  a 
filtering  or  settling  reservoir.  Those  who  have  the  good 
fortune  to  drink  it  receive  it  from  its  Roman  fountains 
exactly  as  it  comes  from  its  springs  on  the  Via  CoUa- 
tina.  This  aqueduct  was  cut  off  from  the  city  in  587  by 
the  Goths  and  Burgundians,  and,  though  in  the  same 
year  Belisarius  restored  the  aqueducts  of  Claudius  and 
Trajan,  the  Virgo  seems  to  have  remained  entirely  un- 
used for  the  next  two  hundred  years.  During  that  pe-^yj 
riod  the  popes  were  not  suJB&ciently  powerful  to  under- 
take any  great  pubUc  works,  but  when  Charlemagne 
visited  Rome  in  778  he  gave  the  needed  support  to  the 
head  of  the  church,  and  thereafter  the  popes  began  the 
restoration  and  the  maintenance  of  the  Roman  aque- 
ducts. The  Virgo  was  restored  mi  4^7  by  Nicholas  V,  in 
whose  pontificate  Constantinople  was  taken  by  the 

[    23i    ] 


^f 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OP  PAPAL  ROME 

Turks  and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  began  in  England.  He 
was  a  great  Pope  and  repaired  the  aqueduct  so  thor- 
oughly that  it  remained  in  use  for  thirty  years.  There 
must  always  have  been  a  main  fountain  for  the  Virgo 
Water,  but  the  records  of  the  modern  "Fountain  of 
Trevi"  begins  with  the  fountain  which  Vasari  says 
was  rebuilt  by  Nicholas  V's  architect,  Leon  Batista 
Alberti.  After  a  short  period  the  aqueduct  was  again 
restored  and  the  fountain  enlarged  by  "The  Great 
Builder, "  Sixtus  IV.  Then  occurs  a  period  of  various 
vicissitudes,  and  finally,  in  iStOi.  Pius  V  restored  the 
Virgo  Aqueduct  effectively  and  rebuilt  Sixtus  IV's 
fountain,  making  what  is  now  known  as  the  "  old  Trevi 
^fountain."  This  fountain  stood  not  where  the  present 
one  stands,  but  to  the  west  of  it,  in  the  little  Piazza 
Santa  Crocifere.  The  old  engravings  show  it  to  have 
been  a  huge  semicircular  pool  into  which  the  water 
poured  from  three  great  apertures  made  in  massive 
stone  piers. 

SThe  name  of  Trevi  is  supposed  by  some  writers  to  be 
derived  from  these  three  streams  of  water — three  ways, 
Tre-vii;  but  there  is  more  reason  to  beUeve  that  the 
fountain  took  its  name  from  the  mediaeval  name  of  that 
quarter  of  the  city — Regione  Trevi,  from  trevium,  be- 
cause of  three  roads  which  converge  near  the  present 
Piazza  of  Trevi.  Sixtus  IV  had  constructed  near  the 
f~  fountain  a  large  pubhc  washing-trough,  and  the  whole 
composition  was  extremely  simple  and  practical.  The 
Rome  of  Sixtus  V  and  Paul  V  became  too  sumptuous 
for  the  old  fountain,  and  as  early  as  1625  plans  were 

[      232      ]  ^^ 


Figure  of  "Neptune"  in  the  Fountain  of  Trevi. 


TREVI 

made  for  its  reconstnictionr-The  Barberini  Pope,  Urban 
yill,  had  his  own  ideas  of  magnificence;  he  proposed 
to  change  the  fountain  from  its  old  site  to  its  present 
"^position  against  the  southern  facade  of  the  great  Poll 
PalaceT^tnd  Bernini  made  for  him  some  beautiful 
sket^es  for  the  new  masterpiece.  Urban  VIII  stripped 
the  portico  of  the  Pantheon  of  its  bronze  and  also  car4 
ried  off  a  part  of  the  base  of  the  tomb  of  CeciHa  Me-i 
tella,  proposing  to  construct  his  fountain  out  of  these 
materials.  The  Roman  people,  whose  love  for  their  ownl 
antiquities  was  constantly  growing,  showed  such  in-1 
dignation  when  the  Pope's  project  became  known  that\ 
Urban  was  actually  obhged  to  abandon  his  scheme, 
and  it  was  not  until  eleven  pontificates  after  his  time/ 
that  the  work  on  the  new  fountain  was  really  begun.  I 
Then  it  was  intrusted  to  the  architect  Niccolo  Salvi  by 
Clement  XII  (Corsini,  lySo-iy/io),  and  after  the  death 
of  ^his  pontiflF  and  his  successor,  Benedict  XIV,  and 
Eleven  years  after  the  death  of  Salvi  himself,  the 
Tbuntain  was  at  last  finished.  This  was  in  1762)  under 
'Xlement  XIII  (Rezzonico,  1 758-1 769).  Niccolo~SaIvi 
had  succumbed  prematurely  to  the  hardships  of  his 
*task.  The  construction  of  the  fountain  necessitated 
Spending  much  time  in  the  subterranean  chambers  of 
the  Virgo  Aqueduct,  and  this  had  proved  fatal  to 
Salvi's  health.  The  tomb  of  CeciHa  Metella  was 
never  again  attacked,  and  there  is  no  bronze  in  the 
present  fountain;  in  other  respects  the  great  scheme 
of  Urban  VIII  was  revived.  The  fountain  was  placed 
against  the  Poli  Palace,  and  Salvi  used  for  the  sculp- 
^tural  part  of  the  fountain  Bernini's  beautiful  designs. 

[    235    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

So  severe  a  critic  as  Francesco  Milizia  declares  that 
this  fountain  is  justly  considered  to  be  the  best  work 
produced  in  Rome  during  the  eighteenth  century.  It 
has  elicited  extravagant  praise  from  other  authorities, 
and  in  later  times  some  adverse  criticism.  It  has  been 
woven  into  many  of  the  romances  connected  with 
Rome,  and  until  quite  recently  there  were  few  Ameri- 

/can  and  EngUsh  visitors  to  the  Eternal  City  who  left 

'  her  without  paying  a  moonUght  visit  to  Trevi,  there  to 
toss  a  coin  into  the  water  while  they  drank  to  their  cer- 
tain return.  Romans  of  the  eighteenth  century  often 
saw  Alfieri,  the  tragic  dramatist,  crouched  beside  the 

/  fountain,  lost  in  a  day-dream  evoked  by  the  tumult 
and  beauty  of  the  water;  and  it  is  recorded  that  the 
day  after  Michelangelo's  death  there  was  found  in  his 
house  no  wine  whatever,  but  five  jars  of  water,  presum- 

\  ably  the  Trevi,  as  it  was  the  only  pure  drinkable  water 

\  in  Rome.  The  Trevi  fountain  has  become  a  feature  in 
the  city's  life.  It  is  the  chief  fountain  of  the  one  water 
which  modem  Rome  inherits  directly  from  her  great 
past. 

The  fountain  consists  of  a  vast  semicircular  basin, 
^unk  so  far  below  the  level  of  the  pavement  that  it  is 

/  necessary  to  descend  a  flight  of  steps  in  order  to  stand 

y  beside  it.  This  device,  which  was  rendered  necessary 
by  the  low  head  of  the  water,  is  excellent  from  an  aes- 
thetic view-point,  as  the  spectator,  being  on  a  different 
grade  from  the  piazza  and  its  surroundings,  feels  that 
he  is  in  another  world  and  is  able  to  forget  the  city 

_and  give  his  entire  attention  to  the  scene  before  him. 

I  Looking  up,  he  sees  a  great  ledge  of  broken  rock,  over 

I  [    236    ] 


TREVI 

which  the  water  pours  in  many  streams  and  waterfalls, 
disappearing  and  reappearing  among  the  rocks  like  a 
veritable  mountain  torrent.  The  main  stream  descends 
in  a  series  of  three  quite  lovely  cascades,  their  semi- 
circular-shaped basins  being  prototypes  of  the  great 
lower  basin,  into  which  all  eventually  flow.  Their  edges 
are  smooth,  as  if  they  had  been  water-worn,  and  the 
force  of  the  water  feeding  them  is  so  great  that  it  boils 
and  roars  among  masses  of  broken  rock  as  it  does  in 
a  natural  waterfall.  Above  all  this  finely  simulated 
wildness  rises  the  ornate  group  of  Neptune  riding 
in  a  chariot  made  of  an  enormous  sea-shell  and  drawn 
by  two  sea-horses.  The  horses  are  placed  weU  to  each 
side  of  the  central  cascades,  and  the  group  is  termi- 
nated by  Tritons  who  are  restraining  the  onward  dash 
of  the  horses  and  are  blowing  conches.  The  back- 
ground or  frame-work  to  this  scene  of  commotion  and 
tumult  is  the  highly  finished  conventional  facade  of  a 
Roman  palace;  Neptune  issues  forth  not  from  a  rocky 
cavern  but  from  a  Renaissance  tribune  constructed 
with  four  Ionic  pillars  and  a  richly  carved  roof,  on 
the  frieze  of  which  runs  the  following  inscription: 

CLEMENS  •  XII  •  PONT  •  MAX 

AQVAM  •  VERGINEM  •  COPIA  •  ET  •  SALVBMTATE 

COMMENDATAM  •  CVLTV  •  MAGNIFICO  •  ORNAVIT 

ANNO  •  DOMINO  •  MDCCXXXV  •  PONTIF:  VI 

Pope  Clement  XII  decked  out  with  magnificent  orna- 
ment the  aqueduct  of  the  Maiden,  which  is  recommended 
for  its  plenteous  flow  and  for  the  healthful  qualities  of  its 
water.  In  the  year  of  the  Lord  1735,  and  of  Clement's 
pontificate  the  sixth. 

[    287    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

On  either  side  of  this  tribune  the  palace  wall  breaks 
into  niches  containing  statues,  one  of  Abundance,  the 
other  of  Health ;  and  separated  from  each  other  by  tall 
colunms  are  panels  depicting  in  high  reUef  the  dis- 
covery of  the  water  and  the  construction  of  the  aque- 
duct. Beyond  these  sculptures  the  windows  and  bal- 
conies of  the  palace  frankly  make  their  appearance. 

Nothing  could  be  more  incongruous  and  artificial. 
The  design  is  one  which  demands  a  background  as  an 
integral  part  of  the  composition,  but  this  background 
has  absolutely  no  connection  with  the  fountain,  except 
the  purely  physical  connection  of  juxtaposition.  Nep* 
tune  should  be  appearing  from  some  sea  cave,  worn  in 
straight,  steep  cliffs  like  the  cliffs  at  Sorrento.  The 
architect  who  could  so  skilfully  mass  these  rocky 
ledges  and  dispose  these  streams  and  cascades  could 
have  designed  quite  as  well  stone  pahsades  and  grot- 
tos; but  the  fountain  belongs  to  an  age  which  played 
"Macbeth"  in  periwig  and  ruffles,  and  it  remains  a 
magnificent  example  of  the  taste  of  that  period. 


[    238    ] 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 

The  fountains  in  the  Piazza  del  Popolo  should  not  be 
considered  as  individual  creations;  they  must  be  re- 
garded as  parts  of  an  architectural  composition  which 
includes  the  piazza  as  a  whole — ^its  shape,  dimensions, 
and  location,  and  the  buildings  which  surround  it.  This 
composition  is  the  work  of  the  distinguished  Roman 
architect  Giuseppe  Valadier,  whose  life  lay  within  the 
last  thirty-eight  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  and 
the  first  three  decades  of  the  nineteenth.  His  bust 
stands  in  the  place  of  honor  on  the  Pincian;  that  is,  it 
stands  at  the  end  of  and  facing  the  long,  broad  drive 
called  the  Passeggiata,  which  begins  on  the  terrace  be- 
fore the  Villa  Medici  and  runs  northward  along  the 
western  crest  of  the  Pincian  Hill.  Valadier  had  been 
papal  architect  under  Pius  VI  and  Pius  VH,  and  he 

[      24l      ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

had  laid  out  for  Napoleon  the  pubhc  gardens  of  the 
Pincian.  Up  to  that  time  most  of  that  land  had  be- 
longed to  the  Augustinian  monks  whose  convent  stands 
below  the  hill,  close  to  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Popolo.  It  has  been  their  vineyard,  and  the  story  goes 
that  it  was  while  he  was  walking  in  this  vineyard  that 
Valadier  got  his  first  conception  of  what  he  might  make 
out  of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo. 

Standing  on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  from  which  is  ob- 
tained the  incomparable  view  of  St.  Peter's  at  sunset, 
Valadier  looked  down  upon  the  Piazza  del  Popolo  as 
Piranesi  had  engraved  it  in  his  time  (1720-1778).  A 
somewhat  shapeless  area  of  flat  ground  stretching  in  an 
indeterminate  way  westward  from  the  base  of  the  Pin- 
cian Hill,  it  seemed  to  be  only  the  debouchment  of  the 
three  great  thoroughfares  running  into  it  from  the 
heart  of  the  city.  The  twin  churches  standing  one  on 
either  side  of  the  Corso,  the  centre  thoroughfare,  were 
the  chief  architectural  features  on  the  south  side,  while 
on  the  north  side  ran  the  city  waU  and  the  Church  of 
St.  Mary  of  the  People.  In  the  centre  of  this  area  stood 
the  obeHsk  as  it  stands  to-day,  placed  there  by  Sixtus 
V  in  1689,  and  with  a  single  fountain  at  its  foot — a 
huge  basin  carved  by  Domenico  Fontana  out  of  one 
solid  block  of  marble  taken  from  the  ruins  of  Aurehan's 
Temple  of  the  Sun.  The  water  supplying  this  fountain 
was  the  Acqua  Trevi,  the  same  which  fills  the  fountains 
of  the  present  day.  Such  was  the  Piazza  del  Popolo  as 
Valadier's  eyes  beheld  it,  but  at  that  point  where  the 
Aurefian  waU  is  pierced  by  the  Porta  del  Popolo  (the 

[    242    ] 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 


old  Flaminian  Gate)  he  saw  something  else:  He  saw 
the  end  of  the  Flaminian  Way — the  great  highroad 
leading  directly  from  the  north.  And  at  that  point  the 
actual  faded  away,  and  to  Valadier  there  came  a  vision. 
He  saw  the  Piazza  del  Popolo  as  the  magnificent  and 
adequate  antechamber  to  Rome.  He  saw  it  approached 
by  this  great  highroad  which,  first  skirting  the  shore  of 
the  Adriatic,  then  traversing  the  breadth  of  Italy  and 
the  watershed  of  the  Appenines,  descends  thence  to  the 
western  slopes  of  Mount  Soracte  and,  crossing  the 
Ponte  Molle,  comes  all  the  way  to  Rome  from  far-ofif 
Ariminum,  or  Rimini,  the  Roman  fortress  and  frontier 
town  on  the  Adriatic — two  himdred  and  twenty  miles 
distant — and  the  key  to  Cisalpine  Gaul.  Down  this 
road,  which  is  but  a  continuation  of  the  still  greater 
Via  Emiha,  have  come  all  the  northern  friends  and  all 
[    243    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

the  northern  foes  of  Rome.  Other  eyes  than  Valadier's 
can  see  that  procession.  Barbarian  invaders  and  im- 
perial armies  have  covered  all  the  comitryside  like 
swarms  of  locusts — the  progress  of  most  of  them 
marked  by  burning  farms  and  plundered  villages.  In 
quieter  times  there  have  come  pilgrim  hosts  and  com- 
panies of  merchants;  and  travelling  scholars,  and  art- 
ists "with  hearts  on  fire"  for  Rome;  also  ambassadors 
and  foreign  prelates,  exiles  and  penitents,  great  bridal 
processions  like  Margaret  of  Austria's  in  iSSy,  funeral 
pageants,  bandit  troops,  fugitives  of  every  type,  bare- 
legged friars  (among  them  a  Luther),  soldiers  of  for- 
tune, and  EngUsh  noblemen  in  travelling  carriages 
with  postihons;  every  sort  and  condition  of  man  whom 
the  north  has  sent  forth  to  the  Eternal  City.  Down  this 
Flaminian  Road  they  came,  passed  through  the  Fla- 
minian  Gate,  and  received  their  first  impression  of 
Rome  here  in  the  Campus  Martins — the  modem  Pi- 
azza del  Popolo.  Valadier  hved  in  the  period  of  the 
First  Empire,  when  the  shock  of  change  and  of  contrast 
quickened  even  the  most  formal  imagination.  He  came 
down  from  his  "mount  of  vision"  and  designed  the 
noble  and  finely  proportioned  piazza  of  the  present 
day.  He  formed  the  vast  and  slovenly-shaped  piece  of 
ground  into  a  stately  eUipse,  whose  broadly  curving 
ends,  made  of  Roman  brick  and  travertine,  ornamented 
by  sphinxes  and  allegorical  figures,  become  the  retain- 
ing walls  of  the  terraced  gardens  at  their  rear,  so  that 
these  long  retaining  walls  seem  coped  by  a  line  of  ghs- 
tening  green  foliage.  On  the  side  of  the  Pincian  Hill  the 

[   244   ] 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 

grass  and  trees  of  the  Pincian  Gardens  rise  in  four  tiers 
of  terraces,  high  against  the  sky.  Behind  the  retaining 
wall,  opposite  the  Pincian,  the  tall  cypresses  screen  the 
new  city  which  stretches  oflF  toward  the  Tiber.  A  beau- 
tiful small  semicircular  basin,  with  a  shell-like  upper 
basin,  stands  in  the  centre  of  each  of  these  curving 
ends.  They  might  be  called  decorative  keystones  to  re- 
cumbent arches.  The  water  gushes  through  the  retain- 
ing waUs  which  form  their  background  and  falls  be- 
tween the  convolutions  of  the  shell  in  a  fringe  of  steady, 
slender  streams. 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  eighteenth  century 
did  not  die  with  the  close  of  the  year  1799.  It  lingered 
on  through  the  first,  and  more  than  the  first,  decade 
of  the  century  which  followed.  Valadier  remained  an 
eighteenth-century  architect  to  the  end  of  his  life.  This 
is  most  apparent  in  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  his  work  of 
widest  scope  and  freest  fancy  and  the  product  of  his 
most  mature  talent.  Elegance,  proportion,  and  formal- 
ity are  the  quahties  on  which  Valadier  rehes.  His  com- 
position is  simple,  poHshed,  and  formal,  and  the  note 
of  affectation  ingrained  in  the  art  of  that  period  is 
given  in  the  Egyptian  character  of  some  of  the  or- 
naments and  accessories.  This  character  was  undoubt- 
edly suggested  by  the  obehsk,  but  it  is  a  curious  coin- 
cidence that  many  archaeological  remains  of  Egyptian 
origin  have  been  discovered  in  this  part  of  Rome. 

The  allegorical  groups  placed  behind  the  fountains 
represent  on  the  side  of  the  Pincian  the  god  Mars  in 
full  armor,  supported  by  the  river-gods  Anio  and  Tiber, 
[    245    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

each  with  his  respective  emblem,  one  of  the  emblems 
belonging  to  the  Tiber  being  the  figm-e  of  Mercm'y,  the 
god  of  trade.  On  the  side  toward  the  river  the  group 
represents  Neptmie  between  two  Tritons.  These  groups 
are  by  Valadier,  and  their  mass  of  elaborate  detail 
proves  an  admirable  foil  to  the  fountains  beneath, 
which  in  their  great  simphcity  are  among  the  very 
loveliest  in  Rome.  Small  white  marble  sphinxes,  said 
to  be  made  out  of  blocks  of  Greek  marble,  found  under 
the  sea  at  the  time  that  the  bronze  vase  of  Mithradates 
in  the  Palazzo  dei  Conservatori  was  discovered,  mark 
the  descending  grades  along  the  curving  wall,  and,  as 
might  be  expected,  statues  of  the  four  seasons  adorn 
its  four  terminal  piers. 

These  conventional  figures  are  the  work  of  various 
and  now  Httle  known  artists  of  Valadier's  time  or  later. 
The  effect  of  Valadier's  creation  has  been  somewhat 
marred  by  the  huge  monument  to  King  Victor  Em- 
manuel I  of  Italy.  This  ponderous  and  tasteless  ma- 
sonry rises  in  a  series  of  three  tiers,  placed  one  above 
the  other,  against  the  Pincian  Hill,  and  makes  a  hard 
and  artificial  background  to  the  fountains  in  the 
square.  Besides  being  far  less  attractive  than  the  green 
turf  and  Hving  foliage,  this  monument  is  quite  out  of 
proportion  to  all  its  surroundings.  It  occupies  the  place 
where  Valadier  had  intended  in  the  first  instance  to 
construct  a  vast  fountain,  which  was  to  rise  in  various 
jets  on  the  summit  of  the  hill  now  bordered  by  the  es- 
planade and  balustrade,  and  descend  in  cascades  from 
terrace  to  terrace  until  it  gained  the  level  of  the  piazza. 

[    246    ] 


Piazza  del  Popolo  from  the  West. 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 

The  scheme  was  abandoned  for  lack  of  water.  Only  the 
aqueducts  of  imperial  Rome  could  have  furnished  the 
amount  required  for  such  a  fountain.  The  design  was 
most  imposing,  but  it  is  possible  that  Valadier  himself 
may  have  rehnquished  it  wiUingly.  He  was  keenly  ahve 
to  the  beauty  of  proportion,  and  the  monument  to  "  II 
Re  Galantuomo"  shows  how  incongruous  a  Niagara 
would  have  been  amid  such  circumscribed  and  highly 
finished  surroundings. 

When  the  time  came  to  carry  out  Valadier's  design 
for  the  fountains  about  the  obelisk,  Domenico  Fon- 
tana's  massive  old  basin  was  removed  from  its  position 
on  the  south  side  of  that  monument  and  placed  in  the 
gardens  of  San  Pietro  in  Montorio,  now  the  pubhc  gar- 
dens on  the  Janiculum.  Then  the  low  stone  terrace 
with  its  five  steps  was  built  around  the  base  of  the  ob- 
ehsk,  and  the  four  corners  of  this  terrace  were  marked 
by  miniature  pyramids  of  seven  steps,  the  top  of  each 
pyramid  supporting  an  Egyptian  fioness  couchant 
carved  of  Carrara.  The  water  gushes  in  a  copious  fan- 
shaped  stream  from  the  mouths  of  these  beasts  and 
falls  into  four  massive  travertine  basins,  each  basin  set 
so  close  against  the  base  of  its  pyramid  that  the  lower 
steps  of  the  pyramid  project  well  over  a  portion  of  the 
basin's  rim.  The  task  of  providing  a  modern  architec- 
tural setting  to  an  Egyptian  obelisk  is  probably  an  im- 
possible one.  It  must  be  conceded,  however,  that 
Valadier,  while  not  achieving  the  impossible,  did  suc- 
ceed in  producing  a  design  which  enhances  the  dignity 
and  importance  of  the  obeHsk,  considered  as  the  central 

[    249    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

architectural  feature  in  a  Roman  square.  More  than 
this  could  not  be  expected,  and  as  much  as  this  has  not 
been  achieved  by  any  other  architect.  The  obehsk  on 
Monte  Cavallo  is  in  no  way  affected  by  the  objects 
grouped  about  it.  It  is  as  utterly  detached  from  the 
Roman  fountain  and  the  Greek  statues  at  its  base  as 
though  it  stood  by  itself  at  Alexandria.  Bernini's  ex- 
travaganzas, in  which  the  Egyptian  symbol  of  the  mys- 
tery of  life  becomes  the  meaningless  centrepiece  for  a 
banal  fountain,  have  long  ceased  to  give  pleasure.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  the  obeKsk  was  altogether  pleas- 
ing to  the  ancient  Romans.  They  could  not  fail  to  ad- 
mire its  austere  dignity  and  strength,  and  they  re- 
garded it  as  the  insignia  of  supreme  power,  human  or 
divine.  Roman  Emperors  from  Augustus  onward  con- 
stantly imported  them  to  Rome  to  celebrate  a  victory, 
to  adorn  a  circus,  or  to  place  in  pah^,  one  on  either 
side  of  the  entrance  to  a  tomb.  But  when  the  Romans 
re-erected  an  obelisk,  whether  in  Rome,  in  Egypt,  or  in 
Constantinople,  they  frequently,  if  not  always,  raised 
the  monolith  a  perceptible  distance  above  the  phnth  of 
the  base.  On  the  four  comers  of  this  plinth  they  placed 
a  bronze  crab — one  of  the  emblems  of  Apollo — or,  as  in 
Constantinople,  a  square  of  metal,  and  the  obehsk  it- 
self rested  upon  these,  daylight  being  distinctly  visible 
between  the  obehsk  and  its  base.  The  crabs  were  fixed 
into  the  plinth  of  the  base  by  huge  bronze  dowels,  and 
other  dowels  ran  up  into  the  four  corners  of  the  ob- 
ehsk, holding  it  in  place.  The  obehsk  in  New  York,  its 
mate  in  Lx)ndon,  the  larger  Constantinople  obelisk,  and 

[    25o    ] 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 

the  Vatican  obeKsk  were  all  re-erected  by  the  Romans 
in  that  way.  Opinions  differ  as  to  the  reason  for  this 
departure  from  the  original  Egyptian  method,  but  the 
decorative  effect  of  this  bold  but  simple  device  is  at 
once  apparent.  It  is  obvious  that  an  obeUsk  mounted 
in  this  way  lends  itseff  more  easily  to  ahen  architec- 
tural surroundings. 

This  obeUsk  of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo  was  brought 
to  Rome  by  young  Octavius,  afterward  the  Emperor 
Augustus,  to  honor  his  victory  over  Mark  Antony  at 
the  battle  of  Actium,  B.  C.  3i.  Octavius  believed  that 
he  owed  his  triumph  to  Apollo;  and  this  obeUsk  erected 
by  an  Egyptian  monarch  of  the  XlXth  dynasty  be- 
fore the  great  temple  in  Hehopolis,  the  city  of  the 
sun,  seemed  an  altogether  appropriate  trophy.  Octa- 
vius erected  it  in  the  Circus  Maximus,  where  it  stood 
throughout  the  greatest  days  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
But  the  fate  of  the  Roman  obehsks  had  overtaken  it 
at  some  time,  for  when  Domenico  Fontana  suggested 
to  Sixtus  V  to  remove  it  to  its  present  position  it  was 
lying  broken  in  three  pieces  under  masses  of  rubbish 
on  the  site  of  the  old  Circus. 

There  is  no  inscription  upon  the  four  fountains  of 
the  Honesses.  They  are  to  be  regarded  solely  as  ad- 
juncts architecturally  suitable  to  the  obelisk,  the  inter- 
est of  which  must  transcend  all  minor  annals. 

In  developing  his  design  for  the  Piazza  del  Popolo, 
Valadier  had  to  consider  and  amalgamate  the  architec- 
tural features  of  many  previous  generations;  for  here  in 
the  Piazza  del  Popolo  are  grouped  the  works  of  a  great 
[    25i    1 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

number  of  Roman  architects — men  of  the  very  first 
distinction  in  their  own  time  and  who  have  left  the  im- 
print of  their  industry  or  genius  upon  a  large  part  of 
modem  Rome.  Baccio  Pintelli,  Michelangelo,  Vignola, 
Carlo  Fontana,  Rainaldi,  and  Bernini  were  at  work 
here  in  the  centuries  preceding  Valadier,  but  to  this 
last  was  given  an  opportunity  of  combining  the  past 
with  the  works  of  his  own  creation,  such  as  had  not 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  other  Roman  architect  since  the 
days  when  Michelangelo  remodelled  the  Capitol. 

Throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  all  that  part  of  Rome 
which  hes  between  the  Flaminian  Gate  and  the  Church 
of  San  Lorenzo  in  Lucina  on  the  Corso  was  almost 
devoid  of  human  habitation  and  given  over  entirely 
to  orchards  and  gardens.  This  condition  still  prevailed 
when  Sixtus  IV  (i47i-i484)  demohshed  the  old  Fla- 
minian Gate,  through  which,  some  five  hundred  years 
before,  the  Saracens  had  captured  Rome.  He  did  this 
in  order  to  build  the  modem  Porta  del  Popolo.  It  was 
by  way  of  this  Porta  del  Popolo  that  Charles  VIII 
of  France  entered  the  city  on  New  Year's  Day,  1^95, 
with  the  most  imposing  and  brilliant  force  of  arms 
which  modem  Rome  had  ever  beheld.  At  three  o'clock 
on  the  winter's  afternoon,  the  great  gates  opened  to 
receive  them,  and  it  was  nine  at  night  before  they 
could  close.  For  six  hours  the  great  procession  marched 
down  the  Corso,  and  when  darkness  fell  torches  and 
flambeaus  were  hghted  and  held  aloft  by  the  march- 
ing troops.  The  advance-guard  of  Swiss  and  Germans 
was  followed  by  five  thousand  Gascons,  small  of  stat- 

[      252      ] 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 

lire  and  very  agile,  like  the  bersaglieri  of  the  present 
day.  Then  came  the  cavalry,  twenty-five  hundred 
cuirassiers  from  the  French  nobihty,  all  arrayed  in  silk 
mantles  and  golden  collars,  and  each  knight  followed 
by  his  squire  and  grooms  leading  three  additional 
horses.  Then  more  cavalry,  and  finally  four  hundred 
archers,  of  whom  one  hundred  were  Scotch.  These  last 
formed  the  body-guard  of  the  King,  who  rode  sur- 
rounded by  two  hundred  of  the  greatest  of  his  nobles; 
and  among  these  came  Cardinal  Giuhano  della  Rovere, 
afterward  Pope  Julius  II,  at  that  time  papal  legate  to 
France  and  the  most  implacable  enemy  of  the  Pope 
whose  territory  they  were  invading.  "The  King," 
wrote  Brantome,  "was  in  full  armor;  lance  on  thigh 
as  though  pricking  toward  a  foe.  Riding  thus  in  full 
and  furious  order  of  battle,  trumpet  sounding,  drums 
a-beating,"  the  rattle  and  rumble  of  the  artillery  bring- 
ing up  the  rear,  Charles  made  his  way  to  the  Palazzo 
di  Venezia,  whence  he  issued  his  edicts  and  gave  his 
orders,  while  his  army,  with  all  its  network  of  sen- 
tries and  pickets,  occupied  the  city  as  though  it  were 
Paris. 

Pope  Alexander  VI  fled  to  the  Vatican  and,  later, 
to  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo.  Very  httle  came — or,  for 
the  time,  very  Uttle  seemed  to  come — of  all  this  gUtter 
and  commotion.  "  Charles  VIII  and  his  lusty  company 
of  young  men,  among  them  the  youthful  Bayard,  all  of 
good  family, "  says  the  old  chronicler,  "but  httle  under 
control,"  were  making  a  hohday  war.  They  could 
not  have  comprehended  the  great  forces  that  were  at 
[    253    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

work  beneath  the  noisy  agitation  of  their  enterprise. 
Yet  King  and  nobles  fell  at  once  under  the  spell  of 
Italy.  Charles  VIII,  bred  in  the  fortress  castles  of 
Louis  XI,  wrote  home  to  his  sister,  Anne  de  Beaujeu, 
describing  the  loveUness  of  his  Neapohtan  gardens  and 
the  genius  of  the  Italian  painters  who  were  to  do  won- 
derful ceilings  for  him  when  he  had  carried  them  back 
to  France.  Before  he  quitted  Rome,  the  army  got  one 
day  of  pillage  and  the  King  founded  the  Church  of  the 
Trinita  de'  Monti.  Then  after  six  months  more  of  pic- 
turesque soldiering  Charles  went  back  to  France,  plan- 
ning his  return  already  in  his  heart,  and  taking  with 
him  over  the  Alpine  passes  an  army  which  spread  the 
legend  of  Italy  far  and  wide  through  the  northern 
countries.  In  the  fifteenth  century  there  were  but  two 
ways  for  a  man  to  see  the  world.  Either  he  went  on  pil- 
grimage to  some  far-distant  shrine  or  he  had  to  join 
an  army  of  invasion !  Charles  VIII  did  not  return,  but 
he  had  shown  his  subjects  the  way  to  Rome,  having 
been  the  first  French  King  to  cross  the  Alps  since 
Charlemagne.  Even  before  the  Porta  del  Popolo  was 
finished  and  long  after  the  orchards  and  gardens  of  this 
district  had  been  converted  into  the  spacious  Piazza 
del  Popolo,  Rome  and  France  felt  the  influence  for  evil 
and  for  good  set  in  motion  by  this  unjustifiable  and 
fight-hearted  incursion  of  (as  the  old  Huguenot  histo- 
rian calls  him)  a  "madly  adventm^ous  young  King." 
Modern  methods  of  travel  have  deprived  men  of 
one  of  fife's  greatest  sensations.  Lovers  of  Rome  know 
this.  One  of  them,  a  schoolboy,  spoke  for  all  when  he 

[    254    ] 


PIAZZA    DEL    POPOLO 

came  out  of  the  railway  station,  exclaiming  in  bitter 
disappointment:  "So  this  is  ancient  Rome !  It  might  as 
well  be  modern  Chicago ! "  The  Piazza  del  Popolo  is  no 
longer  the  entrance  hall  to  the  Eternal  City.  It  must 
be  sought  for,  with  guide-book  or  map;  but  when  it  is 
found  there  is  no  better  way  to  revive  the  ghost  of  that 
thrill  which  came  spontaneously  to  those  who  entered 
Rome  by  the  Porta  del  Popolo  than  to  seat  oneself 
upon  the  edge  of  one  of  Valadier's  fountains,  prefer- 
ably the  western  one,  and  then — to  try  to  think  1 


[    255    ] 


PINCIAN 


/ ' 


PINCIAN 

Until  quite  recently  the  Acqua  Felice  fed  all  the 
fountains  on  the  Pincian  Hill,  and  the  altitude  of  its 
source  is  so  nearly  the  same  as  the  top  of  the  hill, 
where  the  pubhc  gardens  are  situated,  that  the  only 
kind  of  fountain  possible  there  was  a  sheet  of  water; 
so  the  sculptor  of  the  chief  fountain  in  the  Pincian 
Gardens,  Count  Brazza,  the  elder,  made  a  virtue  out 
of  necessity  and  created  a  fountain  in  which  any  kind 
of  jet  d'eau  would  be  distinctly  out  of  place.  Brazza's 
white  marble  group  of  the  infant  Moses  and  his 
mother  stands,  set  about  with  tall  aquatic  plants,  in 
the  centre  of  a  large  white  marble  basin,  which  is  fiUed 
with  placid  yet  ever-changing  water,  and  it  is  so  hap- 
pily suited,  both  in  subject  and  treatment,  to  its  pur- 
pose that  the  absence  of  action  in  the  water  is  never 
felt.  On  the  contrary,  plashing  water  would  be  a  f  the 
note  in  the  quiet  and  legendary  harmony  of  this  com- 
position, and  the  higher  jet  produced  by  the  recent 
[    259    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

change  of  water  is  no  improvement.  The  bibhcal  story 
is  portrayed  with  great  natm'ahiess  and  dignity.  The 
mother  of  Moses  has  placed  the  basket  containing  her 
sleeping  infant  among  the  rushes,  which  are  repre- 
sented by  the  Uving  plants.  As  she  rises  to  move  away, 
she  pauses,  on  one  knee,  to  implore  divine  protection 
for  the  child  whom  she  must  abandon  to  his  fate.  The 
heroic  size  of  the  figure  enhances  the  strength  and  dig- 
nity of  the  artist's  conception.  The  design  is  httle  in 
sympathy  with  the  gay  and  crowded  life  of  the  Pincian 
Gardens,  during  the  afternoon,  but  all  through  the 
morning  hours  this  fountain  becomes  the  centre  of  one 
of  the  world's  most  tender  settings  for  the  comedy  of 
childhood  and  early  youth.  The  civilization  which  man 
has  made  and  kept  can  show  nothing  fairer  than  the 
Pincian  Gardens  at  that  time.  The  soft  Roman  sun- 
shine then  filters  through  the  ilex  branches  only  upon 
groups  of  httle  children  and  their  nurses,  sohtary  old 
men  who  have  become  as  httle  children,  and  bands 
of  seminarists  or  theological  students  wearing  black  or 
scarlet  gowns  and  speaking  divers  tongues.  The  httle 
company  occupy  the  benches,  or  walk  demurely  in 
small  groups  beneath  the  trees,  or  play  the  endless 
plays  of  babyhood,  in  and  out  of  the  warm  shadows; 
all  of  them  hving  in  a  dreamland  as  old  as  life  itself, 
and  finding  in  this  quiet  garden  of  the  Eternal  City  a 
background  full  of  sympathy  and  significance.  Up  and 
down  the  shaded  alleys,  hnking  the  present  to  the  great 
past,  stretch  the  long  rows  of  portrait  busts  placed 
there  by  order  of  Mazzini  during  the  short-hved  Maz- 

[    260    ] 


PINCIAN 

zinian  Republic  of  iSdg.  This  is  what  has  been  called 
"The  Silent  Company  of  the  Pincio."  No  happier  fate 
can  befall  an  imaginative  child  from  northern  lands 
than  to  wander  at  will  through  this  Roman  playground. 
All  unconsciously  the  classic  beauty  is  woven  into  his 
spiritual  fibre,  and  with  that  strange  sensation  of  com- 
ing into  his  own — ^pecuhar  to  such  children — ^he  finds, 
in  these  seemingly  endless  rows  of  white  marble  heads, 
faces  which  stimulate  his  fancy  or  fit  the  names  of  he- 
roes already  known  to  him. 

In  the  centre  of  the  garden  stands  an  obelisk  the  his- 
tory of  which  brings  back  the  memory  of  a  beautiful 
pagan  youth  who  lived  more  than  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago,  and  of  another  story  of  Old  Nile,  more  piti- 
ful, if  less  important,  than  the  story  of  Moses.  This  is 
the  obeUsk  which  the  Emperor  Hadrian  and  his  Em- 
press Sabina  raised  to  the  memory  of  their  beloved 
Antinous — the  most  beautiful  youth  the  world  has 
record  of — ^who  drowned  himself  in  the  Egyptian  river, 
under  the  impression  that  his  voluntary  death  would 
avert  calamity  from  his  benefactor  the  Emperor.  After 
all  these  eighteen  hundred  years  it  is  still  possible  to 
feel  the  passion  of  Hadrian's  grief.  His  biographer  calls 
it  "feminine" !  But  the  gifted  Emperor,  lover  of  all 
things  beautiful  in  art  and  nature,  and  a  student  of 
men  and  character,  imderstood  the  value  of  his  trea- 
sure and  knew  full  well  the  irreparableness  of  his  loss. 
He  brought  back  to  Rome  all  that  was  left  of  that 
beauty — an  umful  of  ashes — and  placed  it  in  the  Em- 
peror's own  tomb,  now  called  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo; 
[    261    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF   PAPAL   HOME 

and  on  the  spina  of  the  circus  by  the  tomb,  Hadrian 
and  Sabina  erected  this  obelisk  whose  hieroglyphics, 
only  quite  recently  deciphered,  relate  the  deification 
of  their  favorite  and  give  the  information  concerning 
his  place  of  burial.  The  obelisk  must  have  been  re- 
moved by  a  later  Emperor,  probably  Heliogabalus,  for 
it  was  found  in  1570,  near  Santa  Croce  in  Gerusa- 
lenmie,  in  the  gardens  of  the  Varian  family,  to  which 
family  that  Emperor  belonged.  Bernini,  in  the  century 
following  its  discovery,  moved  it  to  the  Barberini  Pal- 
ace, which  he  was  erecting  and  beautifying  for  the 
Barberini  Pope,  Urban  VIII.  Later  on,  a  Princess  Bar- 
berini presented  it  to  Pope  Pius  VI,  who  set  it  up  in 
the  Giardino  della  Pigna  in  the  Vatican,  that  tempo- 
rary resting-place  for  so  many  treasures,  and  finally,  in 
1822,  Pius  VII  and  Valadier  erected  it  where  it  now 
stands  in  full  view  of  Hadrian's  Tomb,  they  being 
quite  unconscious,  however,  that  there  was  any  con- 
nection between  it  and  that  great  mausoleum. 

Not  far  from  the  fountain  of  Moses  stand  two  um- 
brella-pines, their  great  boles  shooting  high  up  through 
all  the  foHage  about.  A  hundred  years  ago  they  marked 
the  exit  into  a  side  lane  from  the  vineyard  where  they 
had  been  planted,  for  until  that  time  these  Gardens  of 
the  Pincio  had  been  for  centuries  the  vineyard  belong- 
ing to  the  Augustinian  monks  of  Santa  Maria  del  Po- 
polo,  the  same  order  from  which,  about  i494,  young 
Cardinal  Famese  bought  the  property  by  the  Tiber, 
on  which  he  built  the  Farnese  Palace. 

The  Church  of  Santa  Maria  del  Popolo  had  been 
[    262    ] 


PINCIAN 

built  by  the  Roman  people  in  the  twelfth  century,  and 
from  that  time  on  it  and  the  Augustinian  convent  be- 
side it  became  the  first  hospice  and  sanctuary  to  the 
pilgrims  from  beyond  the  Alps.  This  was  because  the 
church  and  convent  stand  close  to  the  Porta  del  Popolo, 
the  gateway  to  the  Flaminian  Road,  which  is  the  great 
highway  leading  to  the  north. 

With  these  Augustinian  monks  stayed  young  Martin 
Luther  when  business  connected  with  that  order  had 
brought  him  to  Rome.  The  German  seminarist  who 
threads  his  way  to-day  among  the  Pincian  alleys  must 
often  cross  those  vanished  paths  in  the  vineyard  once 
trodden  by  the  sandalled  feet  of  his  great  fellow  coun- 
tryman, since  Luther's  northern  feehng  for  nature 
would  sm'ely  have  carried  him  at  dawn  or  sunset  to  the 
convent's  vineyard.  There  the  voices  of  the  birds  and 
the  well-trained  vines  could  soothe  a  spirit  dazed  and 
disquieted  by  the  splendors  and  vices  of  Rome.  The 
history  of  the  German  Reformation  may  well  have  had 
its  earhest  beginnings  in  the  thoughts  which  thronged 
the  mind  of  that  young  monk,  as  he  leaned  upon  the 
vineyard  wall  and  gazed  with  eyes  that  saw  and  saw 
not  at  the  papal  city,  where  old  St.  Peter's — the 
church  in  which  Charlemagne  had  been  crowned — was 
being  made  over  by  Bramante  into  its  present  form; 
and  beside  it  the  huge  pile  of  the  Vatican  housed  the 
fighting  Pope,  Julius  II,  and  a  hierarchy  of  utter  world- 
liness. 

The  monks  retained  possession  of  their  Pincian  vine- 
yard during  the  three  following  centuries,  or  until  1809, 
[    263    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

at  which  time  Napoleon  annexed  the  Papal  States  to 
his  Empire,  banished  the  recalcitrant  Pope,  Pius  VII, 
and  set  about  making  Rome  over  to  suit  himself.  He 
found  the  architect  who  had  worked  for  Pius  VI  and 
Pius  VII  equally  ready  to  serve  him,  and  it  was  to  this 
architect,  Giuseppe  Valadier,  that  Napoleon  intrusted 
the  conversion  of  the  old  convent  vineyard  into  the 
Pincian  Gardens  of  the  present  day.  The  work  was 
not  begun  until  1812,  and  before  it  was  finished  Pius 
VII  was  back  in  Rome,  and  Napoleon  was  eating  out 
his  heart  in  St.  Helena.  In  that  long  dying,  when  this 
last  of  the  world's  great  conquerors  had  time  to  re- 
member even  all  that  he  himself  had  done.  Napoleon 
must  have  often  thought  of  Rome.  The  old  mother 
who  had  always  beheved  in  him,  yet  never  looked  up 
to  him,  still  lived  there  in  her  sombre  palace  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Austrian  Legation  and  the  Austrian 
hate.  His  favorite  sister,  Pauline,  was  a  princess  of  one 
of  the  greatest  of  the  Roman  families;  and  the  Uttle 
son,  who  was  to  grow  up  as  the  Austrian  Duke  of 
Reichstadt,  was  still,  to  his  father,  the  King  of  Rome. 
Did  he  ever  think  of  the  instructions  he  had  given  to 
Valadier  about  a  public  garden  for  the  Romans  ?  There 
was  time  to  think  of  everything  as  the  seasons  came 
and  went  and  the  remote  seas  washed  the  crags  be- 
neath his  feet,  while  his  English  jailers  watched  him 
from  a  distance  with  hard,  uncomprehending  eyes. 

It  is  something  of  a  shock  to  find  Napoleon's  bust  in 
that  company  of  great  Itahans  which  Mazzini  placed 
here.  In  these  Pincian  Gardens,  as  elsewhere  in  the 

[    264    1 


PINCIAN 

world,  he  surely  belongs  in  a  niche  by  himself  I  How- 
ever, the  Roman  episode  was  of  small  importance  in  his 
life,  and  he  would  not  have  grudged  the  honorable  po- 
sition to  Valadier,  whose  bust  stands  alone  facing  the 
principal  promenade  of  the  Pincian.  That  architect 
hved  to  welcome  back  the  exiled  Pius  VII  and  to  finish 
for  him  the  gardens  begun  by  order  of  Napoleon. 

One  explanation  of  Rome's  charm  may  be  foimd  in 
her  power  of  suggestion.  Although  the  things  to  be  seen 
in  the  Eternal  City  are  of  transcendent  interest,  the 
things  which  are  only  apprehended  have  a  still  stronger 
hold  upon  the  imagination.  The  actual  lovehness  of  the 
Pincian  Gardens  is  forgotten  as  the  archaeologists  build 
up  from  buried  marbles  and  scattered  inscriptions  the 
Hfe  hved  here  in  centuries  gone  by.  Where  now  is  Va- 
ladier's  casino  there  stood  in  the  second  century  of  our 
era  a  great  Roman  dwelling,  the  home  of  a  patrician 
family.  Christian  in  faith,  its  members  holding  from 
generation  to  generation  high  offices  of  state  and  called 
by  historians  "the  noblest  of  the  noble."  The  grounds 
about  this  house  of  the  Acilii  included  not  only  the 
present  pubhc  gardens  but  also  the  precincts  of  the 
Villa  Medici,  the  garden  and  convent  of  the  Sacred 
Heart,  and  a  part  of  the  Villa  Borghese.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  find  nowadays  in  any  land  the  exact 
counterpart  of  this  Roman  dwelling.  Its  comfort,  splen- 
dor and  universal  perfection  of  detail  could  not  be  sur- 
passed, perhaps  not  equalled.  Its  artificially  heated 
bathrooms,  the  cool,  dark  recesses  of  the  wine-cellars, 
the  courts  and  offices  and  state  apartments,  the  de- 
[    265    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

vices  for  garden  and  fountain  building,  everything 
which  made  up  this  perfect  specimen  of  the  highest 
domestic  civilization  the  world  has  known,  has  been 
discovered  on  the  Pincian  Hill.  The  great  buttresses 
which  this  private  family  built  to  sustain  the  north- 
western boundaries  of  their  terraced  garden  still  sup- 
port the  public  gardens  of  to-day,  and  were  incorpo- 
rated by  the  Emperor  AureUan  into  the  great  wall  with 
which  he  surrounded  the  city.  Surely  no  stories  of  the 
Pincian  can  ever  give  so  good  an  idea  of  the  power, 
soHdity,  and  grandeur  of  Rome  as  do  these  archaeolog- 
ical discoveries,  which  show  in  fullest  detail  the  do- 
mestic hfe  of  the  Roman  patrician  under  the  Antonines. 
Of  all  this  the  northwestern  buttresses  of  the  Pincian 
Hill  and  the  immortahty  of  Nature  alone  remain. 

Napoleon  was  only  following  in  the  footsteps  of  an- 
other Emperor,  when  he  created  these  gardens;  for  the 
Emperor  AureUan  made  the  grounds — ^which  had  been 
the  estate  of  the  Acilii — into  a  public  park.  So  whether 
owned  by  private  individuals  or  by  Emperor,  church, 
or  municipahty,  the  Pincian  has  always  been  known 
as  the  Hill  of  Gardens;  and  the  water  which  now  feeds 
its  pubhc  fountains  is  once  more  the  Acqua  Marcia — 
the  same  water  which  supphed  the  fountains,  baths, 
and  fish-ponds  of  the  great  Antonine  villa. 


[    266    ] 


FONTANA    PAOLA 


FONTANA    PAOLA 

Throughout  Roman  history  the  Janiculum  has  suf- 
fered many  alternations  of  peace  idyUic  and  of  san- 
guinary strife,  for  it  is  a  natural  garden,  and  it  is  also 
the  key  to  Rome.  Whoever  can  hold  the  terraces  of  San 
Pietro  in  Montorio  and  the  heights  to  the  north  and 
south  has  the  city  at  his  mercy.  At  the  present  day  the 
Villa  PamphiU-Doria  and  the  Villa  Garibaldi  crown 
its  summit  and  stretch  downward  toward  the  west, 
and  its  southeastern  slope,  leading  toward  the  Tiber, 
once  contained  the  gardens  of  Julius  Caesar — those 
gardens  where  he  received  Cleopatra  and  which  he  left 
by  his  will  to  the  Roman  people.  One  of  the  earUest 
chapters  in  Roman  history  tells  how  Lars  Porsena  came 
[    269    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

over  the  Janiculum  to  reinstate  the  Tarquins,  and  one 
of  the  latest  recounts  the  struggle  carried  on  across  its 
heights  and  terraces  in  Garibaldi's  defense  of  the  Maz- 
zinian  Roman  Repubhc.  Like  the  gardens  of  Ischia 
and  the  vineyards  on  Vesuvius,  which  are  forever 
threatened  by  earthquake  or  eruption,  the  Janiculum 
villas  will  have,  so  long  as  war  lasts,  a  precarious  exist- 
ence; but  with  villas,  gardens,  and  vineyards,  so  great 
is  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  so  enchanting  the 
prospect,  while  the  world  endures  men  will  take 
the  risk. 

The  water  for  this  part  of  the  city  was  brought  to 
Rome  by  the  Emperors  Augustus  and  Trajan.  Trajan 
built  the  aqueduct  bearing  his  name;  and  this  aque- 
duct, like  that  of  the  Virgo,  has,  in  spite  of  many  vicis- 
situdes continued  to  supply  Rome  with  a  varying 
quantity  of  water  from  that  time  until  the  present  day. 
The  Emperor  brought  the  water  thirty-five  miles  from 
Lake  Bracciano  to  the  Janiculum.  It  was  almost  the 
last  water  brought  to  Rome  and  entered  the  city  at  the 
level  of  two  hundred  and  three  feet  above  the  sea.  The 
first  water  (the  Appian)  had  entered  Rome  fifty  feet 
under  ground.  Trajan  used  the  water  from  the  springs 
about  Lake  Bracciano,  not  from  the  lake  itself,  be- 
cause the  spring-water  was  much  purer  and  the  ancient 
Romans  were  fastidious  in  the  water  they  used.  Alsie- 
tina  water,  for  instance,  brought  to  Rome  by  Augustus, 
was  considered  fit  only  for  baths  and  the  naumachias; 
and  Frontinus  says  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  water 
was  intended  for  that  purpose  only  and  for  the  irriga- 

[    270    ] 


FONTANA    PAOLA 

tion  of  the  gardens  across  the  Tiber.  Christian  Rome 
was  far  from  being  so  particular,  and  its  inhabitants 
drank  Tiber  water  as  late  as  Michelangelo's  time.  Dm-- 
ing  the  "Golden  days  of  the  Renaissance  in  Rome" 
Virgo  water,  which  was  to  be  had  intermittently  from 
the  Trevi  fountain,  and  a  remnant  of  this  Acqua  Trai- 
ana  still  flowing  in  the  fountain  of  Innocent  VIII  were 
the  only  pure  waters.  Meantime  many  Romans  of  that 
period  preferred  the  Tiber  water;  and  Petrarch  coming 
to  Rome  gave  special  instructions  to  a  friend  to  have  a 
quantity  of  Tiber  water  which  had  stood  for  a  day  or 
two,  to  settle,  ready  for  his  use.  Paul  III  took  with  him, 
on  his  journey  to  Nice  to  meet  the  Emperor  Charles  V 
and  King  Francis  I  of  France,  a  supply  of  Tiber  water, 
so  that  he  might  not  miss  his  customary  beverage  I 
When,  therefore,  Pope  Paul  V  bethought  him  of  re- 
constructing the  Trajan  Aqueduct  he  had  nothing  to 
hinder  him  from  collecting  the  water  from  every  avail- 
able source.  He  used  Trajan  water  from  the  springs, 
water  from  Lake  Bracciano,  and  water  from  Lake  Al- 
sietina  as  well.  By  this  means  the  united  water  now 
called  the  Acqua  Paola,  although  not  so  pure  as  the 
former  Acqua  Traiana,  is  yet  good  enough,  and  it  forms 
a  supply  of  magnificent  quantity  and  force.  Paul  V's 
intention  was  to  surpass  the  Acqua  Fehce,  brought  to 
Rome  some  twenty  years  previously  by  Sixtus  V.  No 
one  could  forget  Sixtus  V  and  the  Acqua  Fehce.  Was 
not  the  water  always  before  men's  eyes  as  it  gushed 
out  of  the  great  fountain  of  Moses  on  the  side  of  the 
Viminal  HiU;  and  did  not  every  Roman  know  that 
[    271    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

Cavaliere  Domenico  Fontana  had  brought  it  there  by 
order  of  Sixtus  V  ?  The  Borghese  pontiff  determined  to 
erect  another  fountain,  across  the  Tiber,  on  the  Janic- 
ulum,  which  was  a  still  more  commanding  position, 
and  to  build  another  aqueduct  for  Rome,  so  that  there 
should  be  an  Acqua  Paola  as  well  as  an  Acqua  FeUce, 
and  men  should  remember  Paul  V  even  as  they  re- 
membered Sixtus  V. 

Domenico  Fontana  had  just  died  in  Naples,  rich  and 
honored  by  the  NeapoHtans,  but  there  were  others  at 
hand  of  that  renowned  family  of  architects.  Fontana's 
elder  brother  Giovemni  was  still  ahve,  and  had  great 
skill  in  hydraulics;  and  Carlo  Mademo,  his  nephew, 
was  also  to  be  had.  So  in  1611  Paul  V  employed  these 
two  to  build  his  great  fountain  on  the  Janiculum.  This 
fountain  is  made  of  travertine,  adorned  with  six  Ionic 
columns  of  red  granite  taken  from  the  Temple  of  Mi- 
nerva in  the  Forum  Transitorium.  Other  portions  of 
the  same  beautiful  ruin  were  sawed  into  slabs  and  used 
in  the  decoration  of  the  fountain.  The  design  is  that  of 
a  church  fagade  in  the  style  of  the  florid  and  debased 
Renaissance.  It  consists  of  five  arches,  three  colossal 
ones  in  the  middle,  directly  under  the  great  inscription 
which  they  support,  and  on  each  side  smaller  arches. 
The  three  centre  cascades  fall  into  a  huge  semicircular 
basin,  which  is  sunk  into  the  ground,  while  the  arches 
on  the  side  have  small  individual  basins  in  which  to 
receive  the  water.  The  inscription,  which  is  a  magnifi- 
cent example  of  Renaissance  caligraphy,  gives  the  his- 
tory of  the  Paola  Aqueduct  and  the  pontifical  dates.  A 

[    272    ] 


FONTANA    PAOLA 

smaller  inscription  describes  the  final  completion  of 
the  fomitain  under  Alexander  VIII. 

PAVLVS  •  QVINTVS  •  PONTIFEX  •  MAXIMVS 

AQVAM  •  IN  •  AGRO  •  BRACCIANENSI 

SALVBERRIMIS  •  E  •  FONTIBVS  •  COLLECTAM 

VETERIBVS  •  AQVAE  •  ALSIETINAE  •  DVCTIBVS  •  RESTITVTIS 

NOVISQVE  •  ADDITIS 

XXXV  •  AB  •  MILLIARIO  •  DVXIT 

ANNO  •  DOMINI  •  MDCXII  •  PONTIFICATVS  •  SVI  •  SEPTBHO 

ALEXANDER  •  VIII  •  OTTHOBONVS  •  VENETVS  •  P  •  H 

PAVLI  •  V  •  P  •  PROVIDENTISSIMI  •  PONT  •  BENEFICIVM 

TVTATVS 

REPVRGATO  •  SPECV  •  NOVISQVE  •  FONTIBVS  •  INDVCTIS 

RIVOS  •  SVIS  •  QVEMQVE  •  LABRIS  •  OLIM  •  ANGVSTE 

CONTENTOS 

VNICO  •  EODEMQVE  •  PERAMPIO  •  LACV  •  EXCITATO  •  RECEPIT 

AREAM  •  ADVERSVS  •  LABEM  •  MONTIS  •  SVBSTRVXIT 

ET  •  LAPIDEO  •  MARGINE  •  TERMINAVIT  •  ORNAVITQVE 

ANNO  •  SALVTIS  •  MDCLXXXX  •  PONTIFICATVS  •  SVI 

SECVND  .  .  . 

This  water,  drawn  from  the  purest  of  springs,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Bracciano,  was  conducted  by  Pope  Paul 
the  fifth,  thirty-five  miles  from  its  source,  over  ancient 
channels  of  the  Alsietine  aqueduct,  which  he  restoredy 
and  new  ones,  which  he  added. 

In  the  year  of  the  Lord  1612,  and  of  PauVs  Pontifi- 
cate the  seventh. 

Pope  Alexander  the  eighth,  Ottoboni,  of  Venice,  in 
protection  of  the   beneficent   work  of  that  most  far- 

[    273    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

sighted  pontiff,  Paul  the  fifth,  recleaned  the  channel, 
admitted  water  from  new  sources,  and  constructed  a 
single  capacious  reservoir  for  the  common  reception  of 
the  several  streams  which  had  formerly  been  strictly  con- 
fined each  to  its  own  channel.  To  prevent  the  wearing 
away  of  the  hill,  he  paved  the  surrounding  area,  sur- 
rounding and  beautifying  it  with  a  marble  coping.  In 
the  year  of  Salvation  1690,  and  of  Alexander's  pontif- 
icate the  second. 

The  Borghese  griflfins  and  eagles  compose  the  deco- 
ration of  the  mostra,  and  the  whole  structure  is  sur- 
mounted by  the  papal  insignia  and  the  arms  of  Paul  V, 
the  escutcheon  being  guarded  by  two  angels. 

In  Maggi's  book  on  the  fountains  of  Rome,  printed 
in  1618,  there  is  an  engraving  of  this  fountain.  It  is  rep- 
resented as  having  four  griflfins  and  two  eagles  spouting 
water  into  the  basins  as  do  the  hons  in  Sixtus  V's 
Fountain  of  the  Moses.  This  device  is  not  shown  in 
Falda's  engraving  a  generation  later,  nor  does  Pira- 
nesi  show  it.  It  is  probable  that  this  feature  existed 
only  on  paper  in  the  original  design  for  the  fountain. 
Under  the  two  side  niches  of  the  actual  fountain  the 
water  spouts  from  hons'  mouths.  From  the  three  centre 
niches  it  simply  pours  in  three  cascades,  equal  in  size, 
and  of  really  magnificent  force  and  volume.  The  eflfect 
of  this  water  in  full  sunshine  is  dazzhng  in  the  extreme, 
and  both  in  sight  and  sound  the  fountain  must  have 
been  as  conspicuous  as  Paul  V  could  have  wished  it  to 
be.  Paul  V  never  saw  it  completed,  for  he  died  in  162 1, 
ten  years  after  the  fountain  was  begun.  It  was  finished 

[    274    ] 


FONTANA    PAOLA 

by  Alexander  VIII  in  1690,  eight  pontificates  later.  It 
was,  therefore,  seventy-eight  years  in  building,  whereas 
Domenico  Fontana  built  and  unveiled  the  Fountain  of 
the  Moses  for  Sixtus  V  within  that  Pope's  own  pontifi- 
cate, which  lasted  only  five  years !  The  Fontana  Paola 
is — to  translate  sight  into  sound — an  echo  of  the  Foun- 
tain of  the  Moses.  It  has  the  characteristics  of  an  echo 
— it  is  magnified  and  meaningless.  Giovanni  Fontana 
and  Maderno  could  not  free  themselves  from  the  taste 
and  traditions  of  the  greater  and  more  forceful  Do- 
menico. They  did  not  mar  the  effect  of  their  great 
fountain  by  an  absiu-d  colossus,  like  the  Moses,  but 
they  made  a  mistake  of  another  kind;  they  left  the 
central  niche  above  the  cascade  absolutely  empty,  yet 
failed  to  secure  an  adequate  background  for  the  eye  to 
rest  upon,  so  that  the  structure,  for  aU  its  size  and 
magnificence,  gives  a  disagreeable  sense  of  vacancy  and 
incompleteness.  However,  as  one  studies  the  Fonta- 
none,  as  this  fountain  is  commonly  called,  it  becomes 
apparent  that  its  mostra  must  be  regarded  not  as  a 
fagade,  nor  as  a  screen,  but  as  a  great  water-gate.  It  is  a 
triumphal  arch  through  whirh  the  water  of  the  Pauline 
Aqueduct  makes  its  formal  entry  on  the  Janiculum  in 
the  sight  of  all  Rome.  It  is  also  built  to  hold  before 
the  eyes  of  all  Rome  the  inscription  which  sets  forth 
the  history  of  Pope  Paul  V  and  the  construction  of  the 
aqueduct.  The  inscription  is  certainly  the  most  suc- 
cessful part  of  the  mostra.  It  is  adequately  supported, 
its  dimensions  are  noble,  and  the  lettering  is  remark- 
ably beautiful.  The  entrance  of  the  water,  on  the  other 
[    275    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

hand,  is  not  sufficiently  imposing.  The  three  streams 
are  not  great  enough  in  themselves  to  justify  their 
right  to  so  pretentious  a  setting,  and  they  require  a 
background  which  would  augment  their  importance. 
Through  the  huge  arches,  which  were  certainly  never 
intended  to  hold  statuary,  the  eye  should  see  the  ap- 
proach of  the  water  either  in  a  series  of  cascades  or  in 
one  broad  flood  like  the  serried  ranks  of  a  great  army. 
But  to  produce  this  effect  it  would  be  necessary  for  the 
channel  of  the  aqueduct  to  approach  the  fountain  di- 
rectly from  the  rear  and  to  have  the  castellum  or  re- 
ceiving tank  immediately  behind  the  mostra.  It  is  no- 
ticeable that  neither  in  this  fountain  nor  in  the  other 
two  great  fountains  of  Rome — the  Moses  and  the 
Trevi — is  this  done.  In  all  three  the  castellum  is  at  the 
side  of  the  mostra,  and  the  water  falls  into  the  basins 
at  a  right  angle  to  the  direction  in  which  it  enters  the 
fountain  from  the  castellum.  This  position  of  the  cas- 
tellum was  obhgatory  in  the  case  of  Trevi,  as  that 
fountain  backs  against  the  PoU  Palace,  but  when  the 
Moses  and  Paola  fountains  were  constructed  they 
stood  free  from  all  other  buildings  on  open  hillsides, 
and  the  castellum  in  either  instance  could  be  located 
at  will.  In  the  Paola  fountain  the  castellimi  hes  to  the 
left  of  the  mostra,  as  it  faces  the  city,  and  the  aque- 
duct comes  underground  down  the  hill  forming  the 
boundary  between  the  gardens  now  belonging  to  the 
Villa  Chiaraviglio,  which  is  a  part  of  the  American 
Academy,  and  a  small  villa  owned  by  the  Torlonia 
family,  so  that  the  stream  approaches  the  fountain 

[    276    ] 


FONTANA    PAOLA 

obliquely.  The  ground  directly  back  of  the  Paola 
fountain  is  occupied  by  a  modem  villa  with  a  small 
garden,  and  the  entrance  to  the  house  as  well  as  the 
trees  in  the  garden  are  clearly  seen  through  the  arches 
of  the  mostra,  which  thus  has  more  or  less  the  appear- 
ance from  the  front  of  a  huge  screen  before  a  shrine 
of  no  signification,  while  the  view  of  it  in  profile  is 
too  thin.  The  entire  fountain  seems  to  require  a  soHd 
background  such  as  Giovanni  Fontana  gave  to  his 
truly  noble  and  beautiful  fountain  of  the  Ponte  Sisto. 
There  the  immense  niche  is  placed  against  a  massive 
wall,  and  the  gloom  of  the  vaulted  space  is  hghted 
by  a  gleaming  cascade  which  issues  not  at  the  base 
of  the  niche  but  high  up  in  the  very  spring  of  the 
arch.  This  cascade  falls  into  a  projecting  vase,  also 
near  the  roof,  and  thence  descends  in  heavy  spray  to 
the  black  pool  beneath.  On  either  side  this  pool  jets 
of  water  spouting  from  the  Borghese  griffins  cross  like 
flashing  rapiers — a  natural  enough  fancy  to  an  artist 
Hving  in  an  age  when  the  thrust  and  parry  of  the 
rapier  were  known  to  all  men.  This  most  artistic  of  all 
the  Fontana  fountains  was  also  erected  for  Paul  V. 
It  used  to  stand  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tiber,  oppo- 
site the  Strada  Giufia,  but  in  recent  years,  when  the 
Tiber  embankment  was  constructed,  the  fountain  was 
taken  down  and  set  up  in  its  present  position  at  the 
head  of  the  Ponte  Sisto.  If  the  waters  of  the  Fon- 
tanone  had  received  some  such  treatment  as  this, 
Paul  V's  greatest  fountain  might  have  mdeed  rivalled 
those  of  ancient  Rome. 

[    277    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

Paul  V  (Borghese),  sumamed  by  the  friends  of  the 
Aldobrandini  "the  Grand  Ingrate,"  succeeded  to  the 
papacy  in  i6o5.  His  inunediate  predecessor  had  been 
the  Medici  pontiff,  Leo  XI,  but  Leo  died  twenty-six 
days  after  his  election,  so  that  Paul  V's  real  fore- 
runner was  Clement  VIII  (Aldobrandini). 

The  Borghese  family  came  originally  from  Siena. 
When  the  Spaniard  took  that  heroic  and  beautiful 
city,  Philip  II  handed  her  over  to  the  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany,  and  many  Sienese  famihes  emigrated,  rather 
than  submit  to  the  rule  of  the  Medici.  Camillo  Bor- 
ghese, the  father  of  Paul  V,  emigrated  to  Rome,  where 
his  son  Camillo,  the  future  pontiff,  was  bom.  This  was 
in  i552,  Juhus  III  being  then  Pope.  Camillo's  career 
began  in  the  law,  as  has  been  the  case  with  so  many  of 
those  who  have  risen  to  the  See  of  St.  Peter.  He  studied 
in  Perugia  and  Padua;  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Spain, 
and,  proving  successful  there,  was  given  the  Red  Hat 
in  1696  by  Clement  VIII,  he  being  at  that  time  forty- 
four  years  of  age.  Living  as  cardinal,  quietly  and  unob- 
trusively among  his  books  and  documents,  he  had 
seemed  to  Peter  Aldobrandini,  who  was  the  all-power- 
ful nephew  of  Clement  VIII,  the  very  man  to  carry  on 
Clement's  steady  poUcy  of  restoring  the  French  influ- 
ence at  Rome  and  of  keeping  his  own  family  in  power. 
The  Aldobrandini  had  left  Florence  from  hatred  of 
the  Medici,  as  the  Borghese  had  left  Siena,  and  Peter 
felt  that  in  the  case  of  Camillo  Borghese  he  could 
rely  upon  feelings  similar  to  his  own  to  back  up  the 
coalition  of  himself  and  France  against  Spain.  With  the 

[    278    ] 


Mostra  of  the  "  Fontanone. 


FONTANA    PAOLA 

premature  death  of  Leo  XI  all  the  complicated  ma- 
chinery of  the  conclave  had  had  to  be  put  in  motion 
once  again,  and  in  this  second  conclave  the  nephew  of 
Clement  VIII  was  the  most  powerful  of  the  forces  at 
work.  He  threw  his  influence  for  Cardinal  Borghese, 
and  Paul  V  undoubtedly  owed  his  election  to  that 
fact.  Peter  Aldobrandini  had  been  a  very  great  papal 
nephew,  indeed,  and  he  expected  from  the  Borghese 
pontiff  a  proper  recognition  of  his  services.  Even  with 
the  keenest  sense  of  humor  in  the  world.  Cardinal  Al- 
dobrandini would  have  found  it  hard  not  to  feel  re- 
sentment when  he  learned  that  Cardinal  Borghese,  now 
Paul  V,  considered  his  unsought-for  election  to  the 
papal  chair  entirely  due  to  the  direct  intervention  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that  in  consequence  he  owed 
nothing  whatever  to  earthly  aid.  It  was  because  Paul 
V  carried  this  idea  so  far  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the 
other  poured  such  lavish  favors  upon  his  own  kin,  that 
he  won  for  himself  the  name  of  "the  Grand  Ingrate.'* 
Looking  upon  himself  as  divinely  appointed  in  a 
marked  and  special  degree,  the  quiet,  unassuming  car- 
dinal became  the  opinionated  and  inflexible  pontiff.  He 
administered  the  papal  power,  temporal  and  spiritual, 
with  the  arrogance  of  a  despot,  the  intolerance  of  an 
inquisitor,  and  the  formahty  of  the  jurist.  During  the 
sixteen  years  of  his  pontificate  he  succeeded  in  rousing 
bitter  hostihty  on  eJI  sides.  The  aged  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany,  who  had  Uved  through  nine  pontificates  and 
had  known  both  Sixtus  V  and  Clement  VIII,  com- 
plained that  this  Pope  judged  of  the  world  as  he  would 
[    281    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

of  one  of  the  towns  belonging  to  the  papal  territory 
where  everything  was  done  according  to  the  letter  of 
the  law,  and  went  on  to  say  that  in  this  respect  there 
would  soon  have  to  be  a  change.  The  year  before  his 
election  the  gunpowder  plot  had  fanned  England  into 
a  white  heat  of  patriotism,  and  a  new  oath  of  alle- 
giance was  required  by  ParUament.  Paul  V  was  the 
Pope  who  forbade  the  English  Catholics  to  take  it.  He 
also  was  the  Pope  who  so  mishandled  the  Gallican 
Church  that  he  forced  the  States  General  of  i6i4  to 
declare  that  the  King  of  France  held  his  power  from 
God  alone;  and,  finally,  it  was  Paul  V  who  spent  the 
first  two  years  of  his  pontificate  in  such  a  quarrel  with 
Venice  as  threatened  to  involve  all  Christendom.  The 
Repubhc  so  unflinchingly  endured  excommunication 
and  interdict  that  the  Pope  even  thought  of  subduing 
her  by  arms.  He  was  brought  to  his  senses  only  by  the 
fear  that  Venice  in  her  extremity  might  call  Protestant 
powers  to  her  aid  and  thus  bring  confusion  and  dis- 
aster not  only  upon  Italy  but  upon  all  Cathohc  coun- 
tries. In  this  grave  crisis  France  took  it  upon  herself 
to  mediate,  and  the  dispute  was  finally  settled,  but 
with  httle  honor  to  the  papacy.  It  was  a  Venetian  am- 
bassador who  has  recorded  of  Clement  VIII  that  when 
he  found  he  could  not  reform  Florence  without  great 
trouble  he  reformed  his  own  mind.  But  Paul  V  did  not, 
like  the  wise  Clement  VIII,  "look  to  his  predecessors" 
when  in  difficulties.  Paul  V  had  certainly  no  cause  to 
love  the  Venetians,  and  it  is  one  of  the  quaint  tricks  of 
history  that  his  magnificent  fountain  on  the  Jauiiculum 
was  at  last  finished  by  a  Venetian  Pope. 

[    282    ] 


FONTANA    PAOLA 

Although  the  Fontanone  was  built  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  its  most  interesting  associations  are 
connected  with  modem  Rome.  It  is  pre-eminently  the 
fountain  of  the  Risorgimento,  for  the  last  stand  in 
Garibaldi's  three  months'  defense  of  the  Roman  Re- 
pubhc  was  made  upon  the  terraces  surrounding  this 
water,  and  it  was  just  above  here  that  the  worst  fight- 
ing occurred. 

The  second  stage  of  the  siege  consisted  of  the  nine 
days'  defense  of  the  Aurehan  wall,  behind  which  Gari- 
baldi was  intrenched. 

This  bit  of  wall  runs  northwest  and  southeast  on 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  hill,  and  within  the  walls  of 
Pope  Urban  VIII.  At  its  northern  end  it  is  at  about  an 
equal  distance  from  the  Fontanone  and  the  Porta  San 
Pancrazio.  When  this  defense  broke  down,  the  French 
troops  entered  the  city  through  a  breach  in  the  Urban 
waUs  to  the  southwest  of  the  fountain.  The  narrow 
lane  leading  from  this  point  to  Porta  San  Pancrazio 
was  soon  choked  with  the  dead  and  dying.  The  Italians 
and  French  fought  hand  to  hand  in  the  darkness,  along 
the  road  in  front  of  the  Villa  Aurelia,  that  road  which  is 
to-day  so  quiet  and  so  clean!  During  the  previous 
eight  days  bursting  shells  from  the  French  batteries 
erected  on  the  walls  and  near  the  Villa  Corsini  and  the 
Convent  of  San  Pancrazio  had  wrought  far-reaching 
havoc. 

The  Church  of  San  Pietro  in  Montorio  was  used  by 

Garibaldi  as  a  hospital,  but  its  roof  had  collapsed,  and 

on  the  slopes  above  it  all  the  great  villas  were  in  ruins. 

To  the  northwest  of  the  fountain,  just  above  the  Porta 

[    283    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

San  Pancrazio,  the  Villa  Savorelli  (now  the  Villa  Aure- 
Ua  and  the  present  home  of  the  American  Academy) 
stood  up  against  the  sky,  a  mere  shell  of  blackened 
walls.  Outside  the  porta,  the  Vascello  lay  in  masses  of 
crumbled  masonry,  although  Medici  still  held  it  for 
Garibaldi.  Farther  up  the  hill,  over  the  spot  now  oc- 
cupied by  the  triumphal  arch,  towered  the  remains  of 
the  magnificent  Villa  Corsini;  before  it  the  body  of 
M asina,  still  lying  where  the  young  lancer  had  fallen 
after  his  last  wild  charge  up  the  villa  steps.  Amid  the 
general  devastation  the  Fontanone  stood  unscathed. 
Its  splendid  stream  of  water  flowed  unpolluted,  and 
it  fulfilled  the  noblest  functions  of  a  fountain  during 
the  heat  and  carnage  of  that  Roman  June. 

To  those  who  are  famihar  with  the  story  of  the 
heroic  "Defense"  a  visit  to  Paul  V's  great  fountain  on 
the  Janiculum  is  not  a  bit  of  sight-seeing — it  has  be- 
come a  pilgrimage. 


[    284   ] 


MONTE    CAVALLO 


MONTE    CAVALLO 


The  fountain  of  the  Monte  Cavallo  is  overshadowed 
both  literally  and  figuratively  by  the  size  and  impor- 
tance of  the  objects  which  surround  it.  Without  it  the 
obehsk,  which  forms  its  background,  and  the  great 
groups  of  the  Dioscuri,  which  flank  it  on  either  side, 
would  be  sufficiently  imposing  and  significant,  either 
separately  or  together,  to  form  the  central  decora- 
[    287    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

tion  of  the  Piazza  of  Monte  Cavallo,  or  of  any  piazza 
in  any  city;  but  the  fountain  is  not  entirely  superflu- 
ous. Its  magnificent  jet  of  water,  thrown  upward  be- 
tween the  heads  of  the  rearing  horses  and  swept  hither 
and  thither  at  the  will  of  the  wind,  binds  together  the 
otherwise  disjointed  and  inharmonious  group. 

This  fountain  is  not  the  first  one  to  be  erected  on 
Monte  Cavallo,  but  the  first  fountain  was  as  sub- 
servient as  the  present  one  to  the  colossal  groups 
which  have  given  the  name  "Cavallo"  to  this  entire 
district.  The  Dioscuri  were  once  a  part  of  a  kind  of 
open-air  museima  which,  during  the  earliest  days  of 
the  papacy,  existed  on  the  slope  of  the  Quirinal  Hill. 
Gregory  XIII  had  them  removed  to  the  Capitol,  but 
when  Sixtus  V  had  purchased  from  the  heirs  of  Car- 
dinal Caraffa  the  site  and  the  partly  erected  buildings 
of  the  Quirinal,  he  brought  them  back  again  and  sub- 
jected them  to  a  thorough  restoration,  using  for  this 
purpose  the  material  from  the  base  of  one  of  them. 

There  has  existed  a  villa  on  this  spot  antedating 
Pope  Sixtus  V's  time  by  many  years.  It  had  been 
called  the  Villa  d'Este,  but  it  should  not  be  confused 
with  the  Villa  d'Este,  at  Tivoli,  although  it  was  built 
by  the  same  Cardinal  IppoHto  of  that  family. 

Sixtus  V  was  extremely  fond  of  this  portion  of  the 
city  and  with  Fontana's  assistance  he  created  the  mag- 
nificent palace  and  surroundings  which  ever  since  his 
day  have  been  associated  with  sovereign  power  in 
Rome.  Fontana  enlarged  the  piazza  before  the  palace 
in  order  to  make  it "  commodious  for  consistories,"  and 

[    288    ] 


MONTE    CAVALLO 

he  also  lowered  the  grade  in  order  to  bring  hither  the 
Acqua  Fehce. 

There  must  have  been  many  discussions  between 
Pope  Sixtus  V  and  his  architect  with  regard  to  the 
fountain  on  the  Quirinal.  Everything  that  Sixtus  V 
did  he  did  thoroughly  and  magnificently,  and  it  was 
quite  natural  that  he  should  desire  a  splendid  fountain 
before  his  own  palace,  considering  that  it  was  he  him- 
self who  had  made  it  possible,  by  the  introduction  of 
the  Acqua  Fehce,  to  have  a  fountain  in  that  place  at 
all.  A  rare  old  engraving  shows  that  the  fountain,  as  at 
first  planned,  resembled  the  Fountain  of  the  Moses. 
In  it  the  Dioscuri  occupy  the  niches  as  does  the  Moses 
in  the  fountain  on  the  Viminal.  This  plan  was  happily 
abandoned.  The  great  classic  figures  were  erected  as 
they  stand  to-day  in  front  of  the  palace,  and  Fontana 
placed  between  the  two  groups,  in  the  same  position  as 
the  fountain  of  the  present  day,  the  conventional  large 
basin  and  central  vase  which  is  to  be  seen  in  the  old 
engravings  of  the  seventeenth  centmy .  It  was  certainly 
neither  a  very  original  nor  a  very  interesting  design 
and  it  must  have  rehed  for  its  effect  entirely  upon  the 
copious  supply  of  water  which  was  described  by  Evelyn 
in  1 644  as  "two  great  rivers." 

It  is  difficult  to  say  when  this  old  fountain  of  Fon- 
tana's  disappeared.  It  was  probably  removed  either  at 
the  time  when  Antinori  erected  the  obehsk  for  Pius  VI 
or  in  the  following  pontificate  when  the  same  architect 
suggested  to  Pius  VII  the  idea  of  replacing  it  by  the 
present  granite  basin.  This  basin  had  stood  since  1694 

[    289    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OP   PAPAL    ROME 

in  the  Campo  Vaccino,  the  mediaeval  name  for  the 
ruins  of  the  Roman  Formn.  It  had  been  placed  there 
dm-ing  the  pontificate  of  Clement  VIII  (Aldobran- 
dini)  by  the  city  magistrates  on  a  piece  of  ground 
given  to  them  by  Cardinal  Famese,  near  the  three  col- 
umns of  Castor  and  Pollux  and  the  Church  of  S.  Maria 
Liberatrice.  They  had  provided  a  high  travertine  base 
for  it,  and  it  was  fed  from  three  jets  of  the  Acqua  Fe- 
hce,  which,  some  eight  or  nine  years  previously,  had 
been  brought  to  Rome  by  Sixtus  V.  The  basin  was  used 
as  a  watering-trough  for  cattle,  and  by  the  time  Pius 
VII  rescued  it  the  travertine  base  had  entirely  disap- 
peared under  the  gradually  rising  level  of  the  Campo 
Vaccino — ^that  strange  composite  mass  of  rubbish, 
earth,  and  ruins  which,  up  to  the  second  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  covered  the  old  Forum  floor  to  a 
depth  of  more  than  twenty  feet.  The  basin  measures 
twenty-three  metres  in  circumference,  and  when  it  was 
thus  sunk  in  the  ground  it  became  a  pleasant  pool 
through  which  the  carters  walked  their  horses  to  re- 
fresh them  on  a  warm  and  dusty  day.  The  removal  of 
this  basin  was  actually  accomplished  in  1818,  when  the 
architect  Raphael  Stem  (who  built  for  Pius  VII  the 
Bracchio  Nuovo)  designed  the  present  fountain  of 
Monte  CavaUo.  He  sank  the  basin  in  the  pavement 
between  the  horse-tamers  and  erected  in  the  middle  of 
it  a  second  basin  which  rests  upon  a  travertine  base. 
The  water  of  the  fountain  rises  in  a  copious  jet  from  the 
centre  of  the  second  basin  to  a  height  somewhat  below 

[    290    ] 


The  Fountain  of  Monte  Cavallo. 


MONTE    CAVALLO 

the  heads  of  the  horses  and,  returning  on  itself,  falls  in 
a  generous  overflow  into  the  lower  basin. 

To  some,  the  chief  interest  of  this  composite  group 
of  obeHsk,  statuary,  and  fountain  centres  in  this  lower 
basin,  for  it  is  none  other  than  the  granite  tazza  into 
which  Marforio  once  poured  the  water  from  his  urn, 
far,  far  back  in  the  days  of  Charlemagne,  and  no  one 
knows  for  how  many  years  before  that. 

The  obehsk  which  forms  the  centre  of  this  group  of 
antiquities  now  clustered  together  in  the  Monte  Ca- 
vallo  is  one  of  a  pair  which  flanked  the  entrance  to  the 
Mausoleujn  of  Augustus.  Its  mate  was  erected  by  Six- 
tus  V  and  Domenico  Fontana  near  the  Church  of  S. 
Maria  Maggiore. 

Pius  VI  and  Pius  VII  were  the  two  Popes  whose  pon- 
tificates coincide  with  the  era  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion and  the  Napoleonic  conquests.  Their  unhappy 
stories  are  bound  up  with  the  history  of  the  Quirinal 
Palace,  which  fronts  upon  the  Monte  CavaUo;  and 
they  form  a  pitiful  contrast  to  the  life  of  that  masterful 
old  Pontiff  Sixtus  V,  in  whose  reign  the  history  of  the 
palace  and  the  modern  piazza  begins.  Sixtus,  having 
destroyed,  for  no  reason  now  known,  the  old  mediaeval 
papal  palace  of  the  Lateran,  decided  to  rebuild  it  to  suit 
himself,  but  found,  as  the  new  building  progressed, 
that  it  was  too  cold  and  uncomfortable  for  a  residence. 
So  the  Lateran,  which  had  been  the  papal  palace  since 
the  seventh  century,  holding  its  own  against  the  mag- 
nificence and  enormous  size  of  the  Vatican,  was  gradu- 
[    293    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

ally  abandoned  as  a  residence,  and  Sixtus  established 
himself  in  the  Quirinal. 

Sixtus  V,  for  all  his  detestation  of  classic  statuary, 
must  have  shared  with  his  people  the  profound  respect 
and  admiration  always  aroused  by  the  Dioscuri.  These 
colossal  groups  were  among  the  few  rare  works  of  an- 
tiquity which  were  cherished  by  the  semi-barbarous 
Romans  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  web  of  fable 
spun  about  them  during  those  dark  years  proves  the 
hold  they  had  over  the  superstitious  imagination  of 
the  times.  "Nothing  is  beyond  question"  about  them, 
says  Lanciani,  except  that  they  once  adorned  the 
temple  which  the  Emperor  Aurehan  built  to  the  sun 
on  his  return  from  the  conquest  of  Palmyra  in  272. 
This  most  magnificent  of  all  Roman  temples,  to  quote 
the  same  great  modem  authority,  became  a  quarry 
for  building  materials,  even  as  early  as  the  sixth  cen- 
tury. The  Emperor  Justinian  is  said  to  have  taken 
some  porphyry  columns  from  it  to  adorn  the  Church 
of  St.  Sophia  in  his  new  capital  of  Constantinople. 
The  Dioscuri  must  have  been  discovered  later  in  the 
Baths  of  Constantine.  The  relative  positions  of  the 
horses  and  their  tamers  were  ascertained  from  antique 
coins.  Modem  authorities  are  of  the  opinion  that  they 
are  Roman  copies  of  Greek  originals,  and  they  are 
counted  among  the  great  inheritances  from  imperial 
Rome. 

It  is  curious  to  trace  the  working  of  the  mediaeval 
intelligence,  groping  its  way  through  mysticism  and 

[    294    ] 


MONTE    CAVALLO 

allegory  to  find  some  explanation  for  the  undeniable 
impression  made  by  these  heroic  figm-es  upon  the 
minds  of  all  who  behold  them.  The  attempt  to  read 
into  them  some  abstruse  ethical  meaning  was  aban- 
doned long  ago,  and  the  world  of  to-day  accepts  the 
Dioscuri  frankly  for  what  they  are,  admiring,  with  a 
wonder  not  unmixed  with  despair,  the  unreclaimable 
art  of  ancient  Greece. 

"Ye  too  marvellous  Twain,  that  erect  on  the  Monte 

Cavallo 
Stand  by  your  rearing  steeds  in  the  grace  of  your 

motionless  movement, 
Stand  with  upstretched  arms  and  tranquil,  regardant 

faces, 
Stand  as  instinct  with  life,  in  the  might  of  immutable 

manhood — 
Oh,  ye  mighty  and  strange — ye  ancient  divine  ones 

of  Hellas  I" 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  lot  of  the  Dioscuri  in 
the  unaccounted-for  days  of  the  past,  since  Sixtus  V 
placed  them  here  they  have  been  in  the  very  thick  of 
Roman  pohtical  Hfe.  Around  and  about  them  have 
surged  some  of  the  worst  mobs  of  modern  Roman  his- 
tory; and  under  their  "tranquil,  regardant  faces" 
crowds  of  peaceful,  expectant  citizens  have  gathered 
from  time  to  time  during  the  last  two  centuries  of 
papal  government.  Here  they  have  waited  during  papal 
elections  to  watch  for  the  smoke  from  the  chimney  of 
the  Quirinal  which  should  indicate  to  the  outside  world 

[    295    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

that  no  choice  had  yet  been  made  by  the  Conclave, 
since  the  cardinals  were  burning  the  ballots.  Here  they 
have  received  the  blessing  of  the  newly  elected  Pope, 
which  was  given  from  the  balcony  of  the  window  over 
the  entrance. 

Sixtus  V  died  in  the  Quirinal  Palace.  His  pontificate 
had  lasted  but  five  years,  and  it  remains  to  this  day  one 
of  the  most  memorable  periods  in  the  development  and 
power  of  Rome.  Never  had  Pope  done  more  for  his 
people;  yet,  when  he  came  to  die,  the  Romans  had  al- 
ready forgotten  the  benefits  of  his  pontificate  and  re- 
membered only  the  severities.  They  recalled  the  fact 
that  this  Sixtus  who  was  dying  as  the  head  of  Chris- 
tendom had  been  born  a  poor  gardener's  son.  Such 
dramatic  contrasts  exercise  great  sway  over  the  Roman 
mind — superstition  and  fancy  played  with  the  story, 
and  strange  rumors  drifted  about  concerning  an  un- 
holy bargain  which  Sixtus  was  said  to  have  made  for 
power.  Here,  before  the  palace  which  he  had  built,  the 
silent  crowds  gathered  to  await  his  end;  and  when,  as 
the  old  pontiff  drew  his  last  breath,  that  terrific  thun- 
derstorm broke  over  the  Quirinal,  men  shuddered  and 
fled,  saying  and  beheving  that  the  Prince  of  Darkness 
had  come  in  person  for  the  soul  of  the  monk  whom  he 
had  made  Pope.  Kindly  old  Sixtus !  It  was  weU  that 
he  could  not  know  how  the  poor  whom  he  had  always 
remembered  would  remember  him  1 

Across  the  Monte  CavaUo,  to  pause  before  the  bal- 
cony of  the  Quirinal,  came  in  i84o  that  extraordinary 

[    296    ] 


MONTE    CAVALLO 

funeral  cortege  which  carried  the  body  of  Lady  Gwen- 
doHn  Talbot,  Princess  Borghese,  to  be  laid  in  the  Bor- 
ghese  chapel  in  S.  Maria  Maggiore.  At  seven  in  the 
evening  of  October  3o,  by  torchhght,  amid  a  silence  so 
profound  that  the  low  prayers  of  the  priests  were  dis- 
tinctly audible,  the  procession  moved  slowly  along  the 
three-quarters  of  a  league  from  the  Borghese  Palace  to 
the  church  of  S.  Maria  Maggiore.  Soldiers  with  re- 
versed arms,  mounted  dragoons,  mourning  carriages, 
rehgious  societies,  priests,  prelates,  and  all  the  Roman 
poor,  comprised  the  train.  The  funeral  car  was  drawn, 
not  by  horses  but  by  forty  Romans  dressed  in  deep 
mourning.  Flowers  were  thrown  upon  the  bier  from 
the  palaces  along  the  Corso,  and  when  the  procession 
reached  Monte  Cavallo  and  paused  before  the  Quirinal, 
from  the  balcony  over  the  entrance  Pope  Gregory  XVI 
gave  his  final  blessing  to  the  beautiful  young  princess, 
dead  at  twenty-two,  and  saint  if  ever  there  has  been 
one.  All  the  poor  of  Rome  felt  that  they  had  lost  a 
friend  and  benefactress,  the  like  of  whom  would  not 
come  again.  Later,  when  Prince  Borghese  wished  to 
know  the  names  of  those  who  had  drawn  the  funeral 
car,  he  was  only  told  that  they  were  Romans ! 

Up  the  slopes  of  Monte  Cavallo  in  February,  1798, 
came  with  their  tricolored  cockades  the  soldiers  of  the 
French  Revolutionary  Army.  They  entered  the  Quiri- 
nal and  called  upon  Pope  Pius  VI  to  renounce  the  tem- 
poral power.  The  eighteenth-century  pontiff  calmly  re- 
fused to  comply  with  this  preposterous  demand.  That 

[    297    ] 


THE  FOUNTAINS  OF  PAPAL  ROME 

refusal  lost  him  the  tiara  and  brought  about  his  death 
eighteen  months  later  in  a  French  fortress. 

Rome  was  metamorphosed  into  a  repubhc,  but  this 
obscuration  of  the  papal  power  was  only  temporary. 
When  Pius  VI  died,  at  Valence,  in  August,  1799,  the 
cardinals  held  their  Conclave  at  Venice,  and  on  March 
i4,  i8o4,  elected  Pius  VII  (Chiaramonti,  i8o4-i823), 
who  returned  to  Rome  the  following  July.  This  was  the 
Pope  who,  after  many  misgivings,  consented  to  crown 
Napoleon.  Five  years  later,  when  the  Emperor  pro- 
ceeded to  annex  the  Papal  States  to  his  empire,  this 
was  the  Pope  who  excommunicated  him. 

Few  of  St.  Peter's  successors  have  been  called  upon 
to  suffer  and  to  dare  more  than  the  good  and  gentle 
Pius  VII.  His  ItaUan  nature  comprehended  to  an  un- 
usual degree  the  strange  character  of  Napoleon,  en- 
during with  perfect  composure  the  Emperor's  out- 
bursts of  histrionic  rage,  and  daring  to  bring  him  back 
to  business  by  the  single  word,  "  comedian."  He  braved 
no  less  calmly  Napoleon's  genuine  anger  at  the  bull  of 
excommunication,  and  refused  to  cancel  it.  Conse- 
quently, on  the  night  of  July  5,  1809,  the  Emperor's 
soldiers  broke  into  the  Quirinal  and  took  the  Pope 
prisoner.  For  a  moment,  standing  under  the  stars 
which  looked  down  upon  Monte  Cavallo,  Pius  VII 
blessed  his  sleeping  city,  and  then  was  hurried  away 
from  Rome  to  that  wandering  exile,  depicted  in  the 
frescoes  of  the  Vatican  Library,  which  was  only 
brought  to  an  end  by  Napoleon's  fall.  Then  the  States 

[    298    ] 


MONTE    CAVALLO 

of  the  Church  were  restored  to  the  papacy,  and  the 
Quirinal  Palace  once  more  received  the  aged  pontiff. 

In  the  quiet  sunset  of  his  days,  which  outlasted  by 
two  years  the  life  of  the  great  conqueror,  the  Pope  had 
time  to  erect  the  fountain  of  Monte  Cavallo,  and  to 
begin  or  continue  the  architectural  and  archaeological 
projects  connected  with  his  name. 

In  that  brief  halcyon  period  immediately  following 
Pius  IX's  election  to  the  Holy  See,  in  i846,  the  Quirinal 
Palace  and  the  Monte  Cavallo  were  in  a  state  of  un- 
wonted and  constant  activity.  Pius  played  with  all  his 
heart  the  role  of  the  liberal  Pope,  both  he  and  the  Ro- 
mans mistaking  his  amiable  disposition  for  liberal  po- 
Htical  convictions.  Day  after  day  the  Romans  thronged 
the  space  before  the  palace,  waiting  for  their  idol,  who 
was  sure  to  appear  some  time  on  the  balcony  over  the 
entrance.  Standing  there  in  his  white  robe,  his  dark 
eyes  glowing  with  sympathetic  emotion,  he  would  bless 
the  people  with  upHfted  hand  and  in  the  most  moving 
and  beautiful  of  voices.  If  the  hour  was  late,  he  might 
add  the  injunction  to  go  home  to  bed !  The  attitude  of 
the  Pope  and  people  at  this  time  is  epitomized  in  the 
story  of  the  ragged  Httle  boy  who  one  day  found  him- 
self in  the  Quirinal  Gardens  face  to  face  with  the  Holy 
Father.  Dazed  and  enraptured,  he  poured  forth  the 
pitiful  tale  of  his  hardships  to  the  handsome  and  com- 
passionate countenance  bending  over  him,  and  the 
wonderful  voice  comforted  him  with  promises  of  re- 
dress— promises  which  both  pontiff  and  child  beheved 
in  passionately. 

[    299    ] 


THE    FOUNTAINS    OF    PAPAL    ROME 

There  is  about  this  period  of  Pius  IX's  Ufe,  with  its 
visits  to  the  prisons,  its  charities  and  pubHc  appear- 
ances, a  strange  atmosphere  of  unreahty.  A  factitious 
glamour  blinded  the  popular  mind,  and  the  Pope  Uved 
upon  pious  and  ideal  illusions — as  Marie  Antoinette 
had  played  at  simplicity  and  a  return  to  Nature  on 
the  eve  of  the  Revolution. 

When  the  golden  charm  was  broken  by  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution  in  Palermo  and  the  murder  of 
Pellegrino  Rossi  in  Rome,  the  frightened  pontiff,  turn- 
ing from  an  angry  people,  whom  in  the  nature  of  things 
he  could  not  possibly  satisfy,  appealed  to  the  most 
reactionary  of  all  the  Itahan  powers,  the  King  of  Na- 
ples, or  "Bomba."  Then  the  Quirinal  witnessed  the 
last  act  which  the  papacy  was  to  play  within  its  pre- 
cincts. The  Pope  and  one  attendant  escaped  from  the 
palace  by  a  small  side  door  in  the  garden  wall  and  fled 
across  the  frontier  to  Gaeta,  onNeapoUtan  territory.  He 
carried  with  him  the  pyx  which  Pius  VII  had  carried 
when  he  also  had  quitted  the  Quirinal  in  haste  thirty- 
nine  years  before;  but,  unUke  Pius  VII,  Pius  IX  never 
returned  thither.  When  he  came  back  to  Rome  the 
Vatican  received  him. 

The  Quirinal,  the  third  one  of  the  papal  palaces,  has 
become  a  symbol  of  the  actual  sovereignty  of  Rome, 
and,  in  1871,  it  passed  with  the  temporal  power 
from  Pope  Pius  IX  to  Victor  Emmanuel  II,  King  of 
Italy. 

The  cardinals'  coaches  no  longer  drive  about  the 
fountain  of  Pius  VII.  The  consistories  are  held  in  the 

[    3oo    ] 


MONTE    CAVALLO 

Vatican;  and  on  the  Monte  Cavallo  the  Bersaglieri 
have  superseded  the  papal  Zouaves.  Over  the  Quirinal 
the  pontifical  yellow  and  white  has  given  way  to  the 
green  and  white  and  red  of  United  Italy.  "  Old  things 
are  passed  away.  Behold,  all  things  have  become  new" 
— once  again  in  the  city  of  eternal  change. 


APPENDIX 

Inscriptions  in  Piazza  di  Spagna 
ON  THE  Spanish  Steps 

I 
D.  0.  M. 

MAGNIFICAM  HANG   SPECTATOR   QVAM  MIRARIS  SCALAM 
VT    COMMODAM   AC   ORNAMENTVM   NON   EXIGWM 

REGIO  COENOBIO  ipsiq.  vrbi  allatvram 

ANIMO   CONCEPIT    LEGATAQ.    SVPREMIS   IN   TABVLIS  PECVNIA 
VNDE   SVMPTVS    SVPPEDITARENTVR   CONSTRVI   MANDAVIT 

NOBILIS    GALLVS   STEPHANVS   GVEFFIER 

QVI   REGIO   IN   MINISTERIO   DIV   PLVRES  APVD   PONTIFICES 

ALIOSQVE    SVBLIMES   PRINCIPES   EGREGIE   VERSATVS 

ROMAE   VIVERE   DESIIT   XXX.    IVNII   MDCLXI. 

OPVS   AVTEM   VARIO   RERVM   INTERVENTV 

PRiMVM  svB  CLEMENTE  XI 

CVM   MVLTI   PROPONERENTVR   MODVLI   ET   FORMAE 

IN   DELIBERATIONE   POSITVM 

DEINDE   SVB    INNOCENTIO   XIII.    STABILITVM 

ET   R.    P.    BERTRANDI   MONSINAT   TOLOSATIS 

ORD.  MINIMORVM  S.  FRANCISCI  DE  PAVLA  CORRECTORIS  GENLIS 

FIDEI    CVRAEQ.    COMMISSVM   AC   INCHOATVTVI 

TANDEM   BENEDICTO   XIII   FELICITER   SEDENTE 

CONFECTAHM   ABSOLVTVMQVE   EST 

ANNO   JVBILEI   MDCCXXV 

r    3o3    1 


APPENDIX 
II 

D.  0.  M. 

SEDENTE  BENEDICTO  XIII 

PONT.  MAX. 

LUDOVICO    XV 

IN  GALLIIS  REGNANTE 

EIVSQ.  APVD   SANCTAM   SEDEM 
NEGOTIIS  PFLEPOSITO 

MELCHIORE  S.  R.  ECCLESI.E 
CARDINALI  DE  POLIGNAC 

ARCHIEPISCOPO   AVSCITANO 

AD   SACILE   ^DIS  ALALEQVE   VRBIS 

ORNAMENTVM 

AC   CrVTVM   COMMODVM 

marmorea  scala 

digno  tantis  avspiciis  opere 

absolvta 

anno  domini  mdccxxv 

Translation  of  Above 


0  spectator,  this  magnificent  stairway  which  you  gaze 
at  in  wonder,  that  it  might  afford  convenience  and  no 
small  ornament  to  the  city,  the  noble  Frenchman  Etienne 
Gueffier  conceived  in  his  mind,  and,  money  having  been 
left  in  his  will  whence  to  defray  expenses,  ordered  it  to 
be  built.  He  conducted  himself  with  distinction  in  the 
service  of  the  King  at  the  courts  of  several  pontiffs  and 

[   3o4   ] 


APPENDIX 

other  sublime  princes,  and  died  in  Rome  the  thirtieth  of 
June,  1661. 

The  work,  however,  was  interrupted  by  a  variety  of 
things,  and  first  in  the  reign  of  Clement  XI  there  were 
placed  before  a  council  many  plans  and  designs.  It  was 
decided  upon  under  Clement  XI,  and,  being  intrusted  to 
the  faithful  care  of  the  Reverend  Father  Rertrand  Mon- 
sinat  of  Toulouse,  corrector  generalis  of  the  lesser  order  of 
St.  Francis  de  Paul,  was  begun,  and  finally,  Renedict 
XIII  blessedly  seated  upon  the  papal  chair,  was  brought 
to  an  end  in  the  ye£ir  of  jubilee,  1725. 

II 

Renedict  XIII  sitting  in  the  papal  chair  as  Pontifex 
Maximus;  Louis  XV  reigning  in  France;  Melchior  de 
Polignac,  Cardinal  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  and  Arch- 
bishop of  Aquitaine,  being  his  minister  at  the  sacred  see; 
these  marble  steps,  in  a  manner  worthy  of  such  auspices, 
for  the  ornamentation  of  the  sacred  temple  (the  church 
above)  and  the  beloved  city,  and  for  the  convenience  of 
the  citizens,  were  completed  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1725. 


[    3o5    ] 


CHRONOLOGICAL    INDEX    OF    AQUEDUCTS 
MENTIONED,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN 


ANCIENT 

DATE  OF 
AQUEDUCT  CONSTKUCTION  PAGE 

Appia 312  B.  C 3g,  270. 

Anio  Vetus 272-269  B.  C .  .38. 

Marcia 144-140  B.C..  38,  125,  266. 

Alsietina (Under  the  Em- 
peror Augustus)  270,  273. 

Virgo 19B,  C 38,86,109,148,216,229-232, 

235,  237,  270,  271. 

Claudia 38-52  A.  D. . .  .x,  231. 

Anio  Novus 38-52  A.  D x. 

Traiana 109  A.  D 14,  22,  231,  270,  271. 

Alexandrina 226  A.  D 149,  216. 


MODERN 

Acqua  Damasiana . .  (Under   Pope 

Damasus) 8. 

Acqua  Vergine  di 

Trevi 1570  A.  D 14,  38,  90,  97,  98,  107,  109, 

128,  141, 199,  200,  216,  219, 
230,  232,  236,  242,  276. 

Acqua  Felice 1587  A.  D 22,  38,  39,  44,  124,  125,  128, 

147,  149, 152, 158, 169, 172, 
178,  259,  271,  272,  289,  290. 

Acqua  Paola 1611  A.  D 5,6,  21,  22,  36,  37, 38, 78, 141, 

271,  272,  276. 

Acqua  Marcia  Pia.  .1870  A.  D 38-40,  200,  266. 

[     307     ] 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX  OF  POPES 
MENTIONED 

POPE  DATE  PAGE 

Damasus 366-384 7,  8. 

Symmachus 498-514 11-14. 

Hadrian  1 772-795 39,  57. 

Celestine  II 1143-1144 13. 

Honorius  III 1216-1227 13. 

Eugenius  IV 1431-1447 198. 

Nicholas  V 1447-1455 231,  232. 

Sixtus  IV 1471-1484 14,  23,  24,  28,  31,  57,  84,  232, 

252. 

Innocent  VIII 1484-1492 14,  15,  271. 

Alexander  VI 1492-1503 14,  16,  24,  27,  29-32,  53,  77, 

173,  253. 

Julius  n 1503-1513 23,  29,  32,  69,  253,  263. 

Leo  X 1513-1522 24,  32,  69,  139,  151. 

Adrian  VI 1522-1523 69. 

Clement  VII 1523-1534 69,  70,  75,  110. 

Paul  m 1534-1550 32,  45,  46,  52,  58,  63-79,  109- 

112,  188,  198,  211,  271. 

Julius  m 1550-1555 83-104,  109,  145,  148,  278. 

MarcellusII 1555  102. 

Paul  IV 1555-1559 112. 

Pius  IV 1559-1566 86,  88,  89,  102,  109,  111,  112, 

120,  124,  146,  216. 

Pius  V 1566-1572 86, 102, 109, 120, 126, 132, 232. 

Gregory  Xm 1572-1585 14,  52,  86,  89,  102,  108,  109, 

112-114,126,129,131,139, 

216,  288. 
Sixtus  V 1585-1590 17,  22,  23,  28,  87,  39,  44,  52, 

89,  102,  103,  108,  109,  113, 

119-132, 139, 146-152, 155- 

165,  174,  224,  232,  242,  251, 

271,  272,  274,  275,281,  288- 

296. 

[    3o8    ] 


CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX 

POPE  DATE  PAGE 

Urban  VII 1590  156. 

Gregory  XIV 1590-1591 156. 

Innocent  IX 1591-1592 156. 

Clement  VIH 1592-1605 103,  156,  163,  278,  281,  282, 

290. 

Leo  XI 1605  103,  172,  278,  281. 

Paul  V 1605-1621 3-18,  22-32,  66, 103, 145, 146, 

148,  157,  187-189,  211,  222, 

232,  270-284. 
Urban  VDI 1623-1644 24,  66, 172, 176,  199-201,  211, 

222,  224,  235,  262,  283. 

Innocent  X 1644-1655 52,  219-222,  224. 

Alexander  VIE 1655-1667 202. 

Clement  X 1670-1676 4. 

Alexander  Vm ....  1689-1691 273-275. 

Clement  XII 1730-1740 52,  55,  235,  237. 

Benedict  XTV 1740-1758 90,  235. 

Clement  XIH 1758-1769 225,  235. 

Clement  XIV 1769-1775 103,  104. 

Pius  VI 1775-1800 103,  104,  241,  262,  264,  289, 

293,  297,  298. 
Pius  Vn 1800-1823 241,  262,  264,  265,  289,  290, 

293,  298-300. 

Leo  Xn 1823-1829 109,  115. 

Gregory  XVI 1831-1846 147,  297. 

Pius  IX 1846-1878 35-40,  225,  299,  300. 


t     309     ] 


ALPHABETICAL    INDEX     OF  ARCHITECTS, 
SCULPTORS,  PAINTERS,  AND  EN- 
GRAVERS MENTIONED 

NAME  DATE  PAOB 

Alberti,  Leon  Battista 1404-1472 ..  232. 

Amannati,  Bartolommeo .  .  .1511-1586.  .84,  87, 88,  94,  95.  97, 100» 

101,  127,  145-148. 

Amici,  Luigi 1813-1897.  .36,  219. 

Antinori fl.  ca.  1800.  .289. 

Bandinelli,  Baccio 1487-1559.  .54. 

Baronino fl.  ca.  1550.  .100. 

Barozzi,  Giacomo,  da  Vi- 

gnola 1507-1573.  .84,  87,  94,  100,  101,  112, 

252. 
Berettina,  Pietro  da  Cor- 

tona 159&-1669.  .120. 

Bemini,  Giovanni  Lorenzo..  1598-1680..  5,  27,  77,  108,  135,  171, 

181,185,186,194,199, 
207,  208,  211.  21^-225, 
235,  250,  252. 

Bemini,  Pietro 1562-1629. .  199,  200. 

Betti,  Bernardino  di  Pin- 

turicchio 1454-1513.  .77. 

Bitta,  della  Zappala 1807-         . .  36,  220. 

Bonanni fl.  ca.  1570.. 17. 

Brazza,  Count  (the  elder).,  .fl.  ca.  1830.  .259. 

Bresciano,  Prospero fl.  ca.  1585 . .  147,  162. 

Buonarroti,  Michelangelo. ..  1474-1564 .  .23,  44-46,  49,  52,  54, 57- 

59,  69,  73,  77,  84,  94, 
101,  109,  167,  236,  252, 
271. 

Canova,  Antonio 1757-1822. .  194. 

Cavalieri,  Tommaso  de fl.  ca.  1500 .  .52. 

Cellini,  Benvenuto 1500-1570. .  100,  110. 

[    3io    ] 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX 

NAMB  DATE  PAGE 

Criiyl 1640  (?)....  165. 

Falda,  Giovanni  Battista...  1648-1691..  108,  114,  165,  199,  200, 

274. 

Fontana,  Carlo 1634-1714.  .4,  252. 

Fontana,  Domenico 1543-1607.  .22,  23,  28,  37,  38,  54,  87, 

119, 120,  125-128, 131, 
135, 145-150,  155-165, 
171,242,249,251,272, 
275,  288,  289,  293. 

Fontana,  Giovanni 1540-1641.  .22,  135,  272,  275,  277. 

Gelee,  Claude  Lorraine 1600-1682. .  176. 

Landini,  Taddeo -1594 . .  131,  136. 

Lazzari  Donato,  Bramante 

da  Urbino 1444-1514 .  .  16,  23,  27,  28,  30,  263. 

Letarouilly 1795-1865 . .  96,  186. 

Ligorio,  Pirro 1493-1573 .  .  45,  88. 

Lippi,  Annibale fl.  ca.  1550.  .171. 

Maderno,  Carlo 1556-1629 . .  4, 6, 15,  21,  23, 32, 37, 135, 

198,  199,  252,  272,  275. 

Maggi 1566-1620(  ?)  155,  165,  274. 

Millotti 165. 

Mari,  Gianantonio fl.  ca.  1648 .  .219. 

Pieconi,  Antonio  da  San- 

gallo 1482-1546.  .69. 

Pintelli,  Baccio 1420-1480. .  252. 

Piranesi,  Giovanni  Battista.1707-1778 .  .49,  93, 124, 146, 158,220, 

242,  274. 

Porta.  Giacomo  deUa 1541-1604.  .69,   107,   109,   112,  138, 

216,  219,  220. 

Porta,  Giovanni  Battista 

deUa 1539-1594. .  146. 

Porta,  Guglielmo  della -1577.  .  77,  135. 

Poussin,  Nicholas 1574-1665 . .  176. 

Rainaldi,  Carlo 1611-1691.  .52,  65,  219,  252. 

Rainaldi,  Girolamo 1570-1655.  .52,  65. 

Salvi,  Niccold 1699-1751 .  .  235. 

Sanctis,  Francesco  de fl.  ca.  1725 .  .202. 

Sanzio,  Raphael  da  Urbino..l483-1520..  23,  24,  27,  28,  139,  140. 

Specchi,  Alessandro 1665-1706 .  .  202. 

Stem,  Raphael 1790-1821 .  .  96,  103,  290. 

Stocchi fl.  ca.  1825 .  .109. 

[    3ii    ] 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX; 

NAME  DATE  PAQE 

Tenerani,  Pietro 1789-1869.  .36. 

Vacca,  Flaminio 1530-1596 . .  146. 

Valadier,  Giuseppe 1762-1839.  .215,  241-255,  262,  264, 

265. 

Vansantio,  Antonio -1710(  ?)  66,  186. 

Vasari,  Giorgio 1493-1573.  .44,  54,  58,  94,  101,  164, 

232. 

Vespignani,  Virginio 1808-1882.  .37. 

Watteau,  Antoine 1684-1721 . .  186. 


[    3ia    ] 


